TITLE: Heir to Buckland
AUTHOR: Anso the Hobbit
BETA: Marigold
RATING: G
CHARACTERS: Merry, Frodo, Esmeralda, Saradoc, various Brandybucks and other Bucklanders, brief mention of Pippin
TIMELINE: 1394 S.R., so Merry is 12 and Frodo is 26
SUMMARY: The Brandywine floods and Merry takes responsibility to heart.
DISCLAIMER: They all belong to Tolkien, I just borrowed them for a while.
NOTE: Thanks to Marigold for the plot. Feedback would be nice… Enjoy!
WEB PAGE: www.livejournal.com/users/ansothehobbit
EMAIL: ansohobbit@hotmail.com

 

PART ONE: The Master’s Duty

Merry loved the Master’s study at Brandy Hall. For some reason the smell of dusty old books, ink, leather and pipe weed attracted him. His father had taken over many of the responsibilities as Master now, as Merry`s grandfather, Rory, was getting old, and was not so vigorous any more. Saradoc had started talking to and teaching Merry about the responsibility that one day would be placed on his shoulders. Merry didn’t mind much, as he was able to travel across Buckland with his father, listening to his conversations with the farmers, craftsmen, foresters, and merchants.

Now, Merry was sitting in the window seat in the study, watching the ferry landing. Frodo was coming to visit. He had not seen his cousin in a good while. Frodo had written and said that he would stay an entire month, and Merry had been planning all they would do.

“Now then laddie. What are you doing here?” Old Rory came into the room and sat down behind the large desk, frowning at the lad in the window seat.

“I’m waiting for Frodo. He’s supposed to come this afternoon.”

“Ah. Let’s hope he’s not stopped by the weather then. Your father

said it was raining down in Rushy, and that the clouds were moving north with great speed. It looks like we have a storm coming.”

Merry looked out the window, and saw clouds gathering in the sky, but he thought Frodo would miss the rain if he came soon.

“I’ll go down to the ferry and wait there.”

“You do that, lad, you do that”, Rory said, taking a stack of papers and starting to read.

*****

Merry had barely managed to get down to the landing when the ferry came in, and Frodo with it.

“Frodo!”

Merry ran towards his cousin and embraced him fiercely. “I’m so glad you came!”

Frodo smiled and hugged Merry tight. “So, how’s my little Master doing? I heard you have been travelling across the country with your father lately.”

“It’s fun, you know,” Merry said. “I learn a lot about what’s going on all round, and I think I have been across all there is of it by now.”

Frodo laughed, and ruffled Merry`s curls. “So, will you have any time for me, then?”

Merry started talking of all the plans he had for Frodo’s visit while they walked towards the Hall. Inside, Frodo was enveloped in a great hug by Merry`s mum, Esmeralda, and spirited away to have tea.

 

Merry was spirited away himself by some of the other lads in the Hall, who talked him into playing a game of hide and seek. He knew that it was best Frodo did the tea business with his mother now at the start of the visit, because if he didn’t she would badger him about it for the whole visit. Besides, if she got the news from Hobbiton first, she would have something to tell the old aunties in the Hall when the ladies had tea later and the talk grew low.

Frodo had been at the Hall for a couple of hours when the rain started to pour down on Buckland, the wind howling. By nightfall it was storming with such force that the soil was quickly saturated and stones loosened from the earth. Branches were blown down from the trees, roots ripped out of their safety in the earth. The Master and the Steward met to talk about the possibility of flood.

“It looks to be quite the storm we’re having.” The Steward said.

“If the rain continues like this, the river bank might break and trees fall. We need to secure the ferry at our side and the landing on both sides. The Marish can’t hold the flood back as well as this side of the river.”

“We’ll need watchers tonight!” Saradoc said, studying the large and detailed map of Buckland that decorated one of the walls in the study.

*****

The rain continued to pour down, and the next morning the Brandywine was higher than usual, and the storm was only getting worse. Saradoc gathered all the grown ups and older lads and started giving instructions for flood watch and making sandbags. Some were ordered out to start digging trenches. Frodo was considered old enough and able enough to help, so he was joining the teams making sandbags. Merry was informed about this during second breakfast in the kitchen.

“It’s not fair” Merry said. “I want to help too!”

“I’m sure they will find something for you to do also. It is very difficult filling sandbags. And the sand is wet now, and heavy.” Frodo patted him on the head, and went with the others that were to work on the sandbags. They had some sandbags in the Hall, but there were not nearly enough, and it would just be a matter of time before they needed more. A lot more. Frodo and the others shoveled sand as fast as they could into barley and wheat bags that had been emptied after the last harvest.

Merry pouted a little. He was big enough to help! He had heard often enough that he was a strong and sturdy lad. How come he couldn’t prove it now? Not knowing exactly what to do, he walked around a bit until he found his cousin Berilac on his way to the great hall. “Come on, Merry. I think they’ve decided to let us run messages to the workers.”

“Yes!” Merry smiled and hurried after his cousin. It was not the same as helping Frodo, but it was something to do at least.

The younger lads were indeed ordered by Merry`s uncle Merimac to run back and forth with messages. And they had plenty to do.

 

The whole morning and early afternoon Merry ran to the river and back, to and fro, giving and carrying messages to workers and wives and the kitchens and his father.

Lunch came and went. The workers were given hot soup in the great hall, eating on shifts. The rain continued pouring, the wind howling on. It was no use changing ones clothing, for after being outside for a little while you were wet again, oiled cloak and jacket or not.

Harry, the stable master, had his hands full with saddling and grooming ponies that were used in watching the riverbank. Wet and tired ponies were replaced with fresh, warm ones.

Down by the river, Saradoc got messages from the incoming watchers alongside the river. “The bank looks safe for now. I’ve been as far as the Bridge, but all was fine up there. They are piling sandbags on each side of the bank.” Saradoc`s brother Merimac said. He had been sent to the Bridge just after directing the younger lads to run messages. “I’ve sent Seredic and Milo down on the other side, down to the Marish to check on things there. The Maggot-lads should be organising the farmers to dig trenches, but I fear for the fields if the river continues to rise. We might need to get help from Rushy to secure the other side.”

 

Saradoc nodded and went back to watching the workers on this side of the river. He could not do anything else now. The people of the Marish looked to the Master for authority and Saradoc would not have them feeling forgotten when there was a storm raging their shared river.

*****

Merry came running down the lane towards the landing, with yet another message for his father. It was past teatime, and the workers would not be able to go on much more than a few hours before it was completely dark.

Saradoc was helping the workers fasten the ferry to the high poles. The ferry had broken the former fastenings, and needed to be tightened more securely.

Merry skidded to an abrupt stop where the lane suddenly was a pool of water. The river had risen since the last time he had been down here, too quickly for the sandbags to keep it away.

“Father!” Merry had to yell over the storm. “There’s a new message for you!” Saradoc stopped and looked at his son. “What is it?”

“Uncle Merimac says that ….” Merry was stopped in delivering his message for the river was welling anew over the sandbags, and widening the pool on the Hall’s side. “We need to dig deeper trenches!” Saradoc yelled. Merry`s message was forgotten in the rush to hold the water at bay.

Feeling he was only standing in the way, Merry spotted Frodo and ran over to him, helping him with putting a sandbag on top of the other ones. The pile was getting higher than Merry`s head now.

“Merry! You should get inside. This might be dangerous.”

“I want to help.” Merry gritted his teeth and helped heave another bag in place. “And I have a message to deliver.”

“Then why don’t you deliver it then? Your father is over there.”

“I know, but he’s too busy with the trenches, and it was not that important.”

Merry decided he would try to give the message one more time, before he went back to the Hall, and now his father had time to speak to him.

Merry was exhausted and hungry. But he did not complain. His father had made it perfectly clear that all able bodies had to help, and Merry was determined to do what he could.

If the river came too high, the Hall could be flooded and all the Brandybucks and their sundry relatives living there would be affected. That much Merry knew. The river had flooded before, and the Brandybucks always had shovels and bags ready. The snow was melting in the mountains, and made the river bigger and running faster with the amount of water pressed down to Sarn Ford and further to the sea. Merry did not dare think how the Marish was faring, having a much lower riverbank than the Buckland side of the Brandywine.

“Merry!” Saradoc yelled. “This is dangerous! Get back to the Hall, there’s nothing you can do here.” Saradoc had spotted his son by the sandbags, and seeing that the lad was pale with exhaustion, he thought it best that he went back. If there was another message, surely there were other lads that could deliver it?

“If the river floods any higher the banks will fall.” Saradoc said, but knowing how determined Merry could be when he set his mind to something, didn’t think he would listen.

Merry started to protest, but his father cut him off. “It’s dangerous Meriadoc! And it’s dark soon. Frodo will be up soon too. He has been here all afternoon. Go see if there is someone at the Hall that needs help. And get yourself something to eat.” He studied the wet, shivering lad on the edge of the pool. His eyes softened a bit. “You look exhausted, Merry my lad. You’ve done a fine job.” He waded through the pool and gave Merry a quick embrace, and kiss on the head, before he turned his attention back to the riverbank.

“All right then.” Merry felt defeated, he could not start an argument with his father now. He trudged back towards the hall, pulling his cloak better around his shoulders. Not that it helped much, but the air was getting chill.

*****

Merry was wandering in his own thoughts when something suddenly caught his attention. He had reached the yard in front of the stables, when a pony came galloping in.

“I have a message for the Master!” the rider said. “Where is he?”

Merry had moved out of the way when the pony came in, and now he stood forward. “I’ll take it,” he said. He did not recognize the rider.

The rider got off his pony and said “Will Sandbottom, at your service.” Will bowed, seeing the young lad in front of him. He did not look like a stable lad, so Will assumed he was one of the gentlehobbits living in the Hall. To Merry, the rider looked to be a lad not more than five or six years older than himself.

“Merry Brandybuck, at your service and at your family’s” Merry said, bowing. “My father’s the Master. What happened?”

“There are a lot of trees and branches piling up against the Bridge. The Bridge might break or the trees might break free at any moment, and sweep downstream! It is dangerous to stay by the water any longer!”

Will looked pale and was wet through. “When did you leave the Bridge?” Merry asked. If Will had galloped from the Bridge, the ride would still take at least an hour in this weather, if not more. It was 18 miles from the Bridge to Brandy Hall. “A couple of hours ago I think. It was slow going. Where do I find the Master?” Will was sounding more and more desperate by the second. “The crews need to get away from the water!” He said.

“He’s down by the ferry landing.” Merry said, thinking. Someone needed to get the message further south. If Will had left when it started to get dangerous, then there might be trees floating down the river already, and then Merry did not know what would happen. But who could go? And who could be spared? Every lad or grown hobbit that was able, was working by the banks of the Brandywine now, and there was none left to go with the message. Merry had to do it himself.

“I’ll get Harry to show you where to find the Master. I`ll ride for Standelf.”

“Harry!” Merry called for the stable master. “There’s large debris in the river, and Will here has been riding hard from the Bridge to bring us the message. Send him to the Master, and tell the Mistress I have to ride to Standelf to give them the warning. The river could be full of trees at any moment, and people might be in danger!”

Merry did not wait for Harry to come with his pony, but ran inside, getting his pony ready himself in a rush. The rain was still coming down freely, so Merry did not bother to change his clothing. If Merry rode fast, he would make it down to Standelf within an hour, he thought, getting on his pony. Not waiting for Harry to comment on the young Master’s actions he waved to Will and said “Get the message to the Master as quick as you can, and tell him that I have taken it on to Standelf. Then get yourself some food and a bed at the Hall!”

It was getting darker by the minute, and Merry realized that he might not be able to get to Standelf before it was completely dark. He would have no moon to ride by this night.

*****

Merry had not been riding for long when he saw the first trees in the water. What if he was too late? What if he did not get to Standelf in time, and people were taken by the river? The Brandywine was a swift river, and the current was extremely fast and deep, the water freezing cold. Merry urged his pony on, heedless of wet clothes or grumbling stomach.

He could see the lights of Standelf now, and knew that he had no time to waste. The last half hour he had seen several more trees in the river, and some of them were large enough to pull grown hobbits into the freezing river if they were too close to the bank. Here and there, by farmsteads, he saw sandbags piled up, but some places they had been knocked down by trees pushed to the riverside by the current or rocks in the water.

Coming close to Standelf, he saw trees and debris piled against a sandbar, and more coming downstream fast. In the gathering dark, Merry had not seen the trees in the middle of the river, and since the current was faster there, the trees were also taken downstream more quickly.

<I>I hope I’m not too late! </I>Merry thought, again pushing his pony to run faster. There were more and more trees coming! Riding full speed into Standelf and to the riverside, he found a group of hobbits by the bank.

“Hey! There’s a lad come riding in. See what he wants!” one of the hobbits shouted over the sound of the rushing river and the pounding rain. Merry stopped his pony, and greeted the farmer. “I came from the Hall.” He was out of breath from his fast riding.

 

“There are trees and other debris that have broken loose upstream, and will be here any time now. If you don’t get away, the bank might be swept away, they’re coming downstream fast. A rider came to us just an hour or so ago, saying trees were gathering up by the Bridge.”

The farmer that Merry was speaking to lost no time, and shouted to the others lower down the banks. “There's trees and debris coming. Get away from the bank! Now!”

The trees that Merry had seen gathered up against the sandbar had broken loose and were being pushed by the current towards the bank. Due to the pouring rain, the soil in the bank was loosened, and the trees gathered grass and dirt and stones with them, being drawn further down the river. Some of the larger trees got a forklike grip on the bank, and much of the riverside was torn away. The hobbits could only watch.

Gathering on safe ground they watched sandbags, and boat pilings being forced away by the trees. Thankfully none of the workers were caught in the onslaught, and the only one to thank for that was the lad that had come riding in with the warning.

 

*****

“Thank you!” A farmer said, having helped one of his sons away mere seconds before the riverbank buckled into the swift moving water.

Merry got down from his pony. “Merry Brandybuck at your service, sir” he said.

“Aye. I know you” the farmer replied. “You’re the young Master aren’t you? I’ve seen you with your father, riding through Buckland.” Merry nodded.

“Nick Chubb at your service, and your family's.” The farmer said.

 

“Well, we’d better get something warm into you, lad, you’re soaking wet.” The farmer took Merry`s pony by the reins and told Merry to come home with him. “Nibs and Miro here will keep watch tonight, and alert me if something should happen.” He pointed to a couple of sturdy farmers. ”You came at the nick of time, laddie. If you hadn’t warned us when you did, lives could have been lost tonight.”

Merry went with the farmer to his house, was lent some dry clothes, and ate supper with the family there. The farmer thanked Merry several more times during their meal.

After supper Merry rode back to the Hall. His father would want to know what had happened, and since the rain was continuing, Merry rode as fast as the pony could manage safely in the downpour. He did not see many trees in the river now, and hoped that no one had been injured or killed at any other places along the river.

*****

Coming up the road to Brandy Hall, Merry thought about riding directly to the Hall, but decided that he would check on how things were at the riverbank first. He was bone-achingly tired, but the need to find out how things were faring made him gather his strength and ride to the ferry lane. Sandbags were now piled much higher than a hobbit’s head, and the pool on the Hall’s side had not expanded much. It looked like most of the workers had gone back to the Hall, too.

Seeing that the emergency was over, Merry drew a hiccupping breath, and suddenly shed some tears for the lives that could have been lost had he not been in time. He thought of the families that could have lost a loved one, and knew that preventing that from happening was worth any amount of discomfort or exhaustion on his part.

Gathering thoughts and wit, Merry turned his pony and rode for the stables, and gave his pony to Harry.

“Is Will still at the Hall?” he asked

“Yes he is. He went to your father with the message, and I sent him straight to the Hall after.”

“Thank you” Merry said, almost wavering on his feet. “I’ll go back to the Hall now too.”

“Good night, young Master” Harry said, and led Merry`s pony away to it’s own supper and bed.

*****

Inside the Hall, Merry did not get far before his mother found him.

 

“Merry!” she exclaimed. “You get yourself into a hot tub, and dry clothes, and have a hot meal. And then your father wants to talk to you.”

She did not sound angry, but she had lines of worry on her face, and she hurried him along, giving him a huge hug when they came to the bathroom.

“Oh Merry, my lad. I’m so glad you’re back. We have been worried you know.”

“What about Will?” he asked.

“You mean the messenger lad that came from the Bridge?” Merry nodded.

“He was given a hot meal, and is staying the night.”

Merry hurried out of his wet clothes and scrambled up into the tub.

Half an hour later, Merry was in his grandfather’s study, almost asleep, but trying to explain what happened in Standelf.

“You did well my lad” Saradoc said. “If you had not been thinking fast, and ridden down there at once, some hobbits might have been killed tonight. I’ll go down there tomorrow or the day after, depending on the situation here, and see how they are faring.” He enveloped Merry in a long hug, lifting the lad off the floor in the process. “Aye. “ His grandfather said. “You’ll make a fine Master some day. And it was clever of you to remember that Buckland is more than the Hall.”

Merry laid his head on his fathers shoulder and sleepily said

 

“You’ve both told me that I have to think of all of Buckland and the Marish as the Master’s responsibility, not just the Hall and Bucklebury.”

“Yes. Well, off to bed you go now then. There will be enough work for us tomorrow too. It’s still raining.”

Saradoc set Merry down again. “Sleep well, my brave Merry-lad. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” He kissed Merry on the cheek and sat down at the desk. His work was not quite finished yet. There were still reports on damage to be looked over.

On the way to his bedroom, Merry finally found Frodo. He had been looking for his cousin since he came back, and now he was found on the way to the kitchen for a late snack.

“So there’s my brave cousin!” Frodo said, hugging the almost sleepwalking child. “You know, it’s the talk of all the Hall tonight. How you sent young Will to the Master, and rode to Standelf all by yourself to warn them. You know, the aunties have already started talking about how fine a Master you will make, and are saying that you have shown real courage and leadership today.”

“Well, they’re Bucklanders down in Standelf too, so I had to go there. You know, all of Buckland and the Marish is the Master’s responsibility!” Merry said, echoing the words from a little while ago. Frodo laughed then, and kissed Merry on the top of his head.

 

He lifted Merry onto his shoulder and tucked him into bed before going for his late snack. Merry was asleep before Frodo had got Merry into his nightshirt.