Chapter Seven: Sticks and Stones

Eglantine watched eagerly for the awareness in her lad’s eyes that Merry insisted had appeared while they’d been playing. And, yes, there were a few times when she could lift her lad up, touch their foreheads together, and meet the gaze of two small green eyes filled with hope and trust. These moments, however, still remained precious and far apart.

Giving a tug on the last button of the shirt she’d dressed him in for today, Eg leaned down over the bed where her son was lying to gently kiss his brow. His eyes had been closed as she dressed him, and he seemed to be in a peaceful slumber. He still slept much.

Like a babe, Eglantine thought as she lifted him into her arms and settled into the rocking chair. She gently pushed back and forth with her foot, tracing one hand along Pippin’s face. Like a babe, and as helpless as one; still too weak and tired to move on his own, or to make a sound. In a way, she felt a smidge of guilt. He was her baby, her littlest one, the last she’d ever have, and a part of her wanted to keep him in her arms forever.

But then, she realized with a pang as she looked at his restful features, she also missed her little lad. The one who would laugh, and chatter, and bounce in her arms. The one who was old enough and aware enough that, if he did truly wake while in his current state of health, he’d probably be badly frightened.

She was glad Merry was here this summer, and that he had reacted as she hoped he would to Pippin’s condition, still wanting to take his young cousin everywhere with him as in the past. She could take care of her baby, Eglantine knew, but Merry would help bring back her lad.


“Wait here,” Merry told his small cousin as he settled Pippin against the base of a tree. “It’s shady; you can listen to the others playing, and I’ll be right back with some berries and cream.”

After Merry had trotted off to fill his arms with another sweet load, Pippin sat quietly in the clearing. The sun shone through the leaves in patches, glinting off his curls. His eyes blinked lazily open, closed, then open again as the insects hummed through the air. Their focus wavered, held, then wavered again.

“Hoy!” I’m glad Cousin Paddin let you off early from assisting the assistant!” a hobbit teen puffed as he ran through the path near the clearing, “’Tis a glorious day!”

“’Tis, ‘tis,” laughed the other hobbit running with him. “And he does say that I’m just a young lad still -- won’t reach my majority for another four years yet.”

“Besides,” Regi laughed as he reached out to steady Everard, who had tripped over a branch and was leaning briefly against a tree, “I’ve got to look out for you.”

“Oi!” Everard uttered, rolling his eyes as he straightened, “Give it a rest. You said yourself you’re supposed to be playing, not being responsible. And that’s an order!” he mockingly shook a finger at his brother.

Reginard chuckled, his eyes sweeping the clearing, pausing a moment, then coming to rest on the ground near the stick that had tripped Everard. Some tiny pebbles lay in the dirt. Regi bent down to scoop some up as a slow grin spread across his face. “How about, we combine having fun and being responsible?” he asked. Regi stood up to show his handful of rocks to his brother. “We can practice our rock-throwing!”

“Oi!” Everard cried excitedly as he began to run down the path toward the other hobbits. “And the lasses can play, too!”

“Aye,” Regi agreed as he put his handful of pebbles in his pocket. He cast another quick glance around the clearing, then sauntered after Everard.

“Hii-ya!”

“Hii-ya!”

“Oof!”

“Good throw!”

“Nice one, Everard!”

“Hit the trees, Pervinca! Come on, you can do it!”

Merry listened to the racket as he carried the bowl of berries and cream back to the clearing. As he reached it, a breathless Pervinca crashed through the undergrowth on the other side, holding a rock in one raised fist while searching for the last one she had thrown.

“Pervinca Took!” Merry bellowed forcefully, dropping the bowl so that it shattered and puddles of white cream oozed out among the blue shards on the grass. At the same time, Pervinca let out a high-pitched shriek, then began shouting, “I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it! It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault, Merry!”

Merry by this time had his back toward her and merely shouted over his shoulder, “Go away! Get out of this smial! I don’t care if I ever see you again!”

As he spoke, he was leaning down to gather up in his arms the small hobbit lad he had left propped against the tree. A trickle of blood was running down Pippin’s left cheek, and the front of his left shoulder bore a rock-shaped smudge of dirt. What caught most of Merry’s attention, though, were the eyes. They were wide open now and fully aware as they stared up at him. Tears streamed down the lad’s face, while his breath came in rapid, soft hitches.

Merry grabbed him up in his arms and raced back to the Smials.

“Aunt Eg! Aunt Eg! Mum!” Merry shouted as he raced toward Paddin’s quarters. Servants and Tookland hobbits scattered out of his path as he ran through the hallways.

Pippin, peering over Merry’s shoulder as he ran, saw blurs of motion veer out of the path behind them. A hobbit’s elbow was suddenly pointed toward his nose; then it jerked away. A flash of red flared up across the hallway as a hobbitess’s skirt turned quickly. He was crying as loudly as he could when he could get a breath, hiccuping a sob every few moments as his nose filled and his eyes grew puffy. He couldn’t hear himself crying, but he could hear the air rushing by his ears, and Merry shouting in front of him, and so many yells and crashes behind them that he couldn’t distinguish any words. Everything was just a cacophony of noise and movement and he didn’t understand and it was all so very frightening and were these hobbits going to hurt him like the other ones did?

Merry reached the family quarters and placed Pippin quickly on the bed in front of his aunt and mother. Pippin closed his eyes tight and wished hard for the dark to come back and take him away where it was safe.

* * *Not...not coming. Come back, sleepy-darks! I won’t fight you no more! I won’t shoot you with arrows-- or--or throw rocks! Aaiee! Make it stop! Make it stop! It’s too scary! Mama! Mama! Merry?

I can hear Merry...Merry wouldn’t hurt me. He took me away from the bad place. Who’s Merry talking to? No, no, I won’t open my eyes! It’s not safe!

Oh, the healer. He says I’m all right, “just a samll bruise and a little scratch.” Big...big...dummy! Dummy! Too scary...make it stop...aiee!* * *

“Here, Mistress, hold him --quickly! You have to calm him down!”

“Calm him? My baby doesn’t move! And I thought you said he was all right, sirrah!?”

“That’s it; keep rubbing and rocking...the physical injuries are slight, Mistress, and should not interfere with the healing, as I said. But listen to his breaths! Would he could talk, the lad would be screaming at the top of his lungs!”

Well, the lad can’t talk, Sir Healer! Can’t talk...can’t run...can’t defend himself...what kind of horrid smial has this become?”

“Mum! Mum, please, I told you, he’s awake! Really awake! You’ll scare him more if you keep shouting at the healer.”

“Indeed, Madam Brandybuck, I have done my best, as have we all here at The. Great. Smials. Good day, Mistress. I suggest you keep the lad calm, and in the company of those he can trust.”

* * *Splish. Splash. Warm. Safe. No! Is it safe yet? Mama? Where is she? I hear Mama crying, but it’s not very loud. Why is she crying?

Oh, she’s behind me! She’s holding me up out of the water. Water? Oh, a bath! It’s...it’s nice, really. Maybe I can open my eyes now.

Just water. Just water on top of me. It’s so quiet in this room. I can just watch the waves for a while....

...Why, there’s Merry! He’s playing with my wooden duckie! Silly Merry! Ducks are funny when they go topsy-turvy like that! (Giggle.) Do it again, Merry, do it again! Play with the duck!”* * *

“Aunt Eg?” Merry breathed out as he knelt by the tub, “did you see that? “ His right hand clutched Pippin’s wooden duck, which he had been pushing about to create ripples in the water. As his aunt raised her face from Pippin’s curls to look, Merry’s hand and the duck it held moved again -- with a movement that originated from underneath: a tiny nudge of Pippin’s knee.

“Pippin?” Merry and Eglantine said together, leaning toward the younger hobbit’s face. Eglantine kept one hand around his chest to hold him up while brushing the curls from his forehead with the other. Merry clenched the duck in one fist and the side of the tub in the other.

As his mother cleared his hair from his face, Pippin raised his eyes to her. He held her gaze for a long moment, then turned his eyes toward Merry and did the same. Then he flicked a glance down at the duck and quickly back up at Merry.

Merry and Eglantine’s hands met as they dipped the duck’s beak into the water.