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Flames  by Lindelea

Chapter 1. Reclamation

He must have fallen asleep, uncomfortable as he was, for he jerked awake to the sound of crackling flames that blended with the fading nightmare. Looking up, he saw his fire burning merrily, and he rubbed his eyes.

'Wakey, wakey,' an ironic voice said, and he looked past the fire to a shadowy form, sitting, holding a stick with bacon and mushrooms sizzling over the flames.

'Regi?' he said.

'I followed you,' Reginard replied. 'Wherever d'you think you're going off to?'

There was no good answer to the question, so Ferdibrand contented himself with a shrug.

'Were you following Pippin?' Regi asked, more softly.

Ferdi shrugged again. 'Pippin's dead,' he said flatly. 'Went off with the heir to Buckland, and Mad Baggins' heir and his gardener, and got eaten by spooks in the Old Forest, I hear.'

Regi rose abruptly, stalked over to him, thrust the stick at Ferdi. 'Here,' he said curtly. 'I've already et.'

Ferdi took the stick and began to eat. Regi reached into a bag, came out with a hunk of bread, handing it to him without a word, then went back to the other side of the fire and pulled out his pipe.

'I could use you,' Regi said abruptly, when he had the pipe going well.

Ferdi looked up. Use him? He was useless, everyone told him so. But there was no mockery in his cousin's gaze, firelight playing across his features as he puffed his pipe. He wondered what the heir to the Thain wanted him for. Court jester, perhaps?

'You're good with a bow,' Regi added. 'Fast, accurate, very quiet on your feet.' Ferdi nodded. He was all those.

'Thain Paladin wants me to put together a troop. There are too many Men crossing into the Shire, some sort of devilry is at work. 'Tis all that Lotho Baggins' fault, I hear, and Hobbiton's too close to Tookland for comfort.'

He fixed Ferdi with a keen eye. 'You've heard how they've started menacing the farmers?'

Ferdi nodded. He'd heard of great oafs of Men striding into a farmstead as if they owned the place, carrying off chickens and pigs and anything else that caught their eye. One farmer who'd stood up to them had ended up down his own well, and he'd nearly drowned before his eldest sons had fished him out again.

Regi puffed on his pipe for a few more minutes, then said, 'We're going to keep them out of Tookland.'

'How're we going to do that?' Ferdi asked.

'There's ways,' Regi said. 'We're not helpless.' He puffed on his pipe. 'Hobbits have dealt with invaders before. These are just wolves walking on two feet.'

'Shoot them?' Ferdi gasped. He used his bow for hunting, true, but... to shoot at a person? Unthinkable.

'They're not hobbits,' Regi said quietly. 'They're Big Folk. And we cannot stand up against them, openly, they're stronger than we are. Thain Paladin says to shoot them, if we have to, to keep them out of Tookland. They've shown no manners in dealing with hobbits, the Thain says they deserve none in return.'

Ferdi nodded. He'd not seen a Man, not for a long time, but remembered vaguely that they were roughly twice the size of grown hobbits.

'I need you,' Regi said. 'You've a good eye, a stout arm, and you can shoot better'n anyone I know. Will you come back to the Smials?'

Ferdi looked him in the eye for a long moment, then nodded. 'Aye,' he said. 'I'll come back with you.'





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