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FireStorm  by Lindelea

Chapter 5. Breakfast Conversation

Reginard Took tapped on his cousin's door just after dawn. Hearing no answer, he cautiously turned the knob and opened the door. He stared in consternation at the neatly made bed, thinking wildly for a moment that Pippin had decided to go back to Buckland after all, or that his Tookish cousins had carried out their threat to cast him out of Tookland, bag and baggage. But no, he saw the mail laid out, surcoat carefully folded, silvery Tree of Gondor shining upon the black surface. At a hand on his shoulder, he whirled to face the cousin he sought.

'Looking for me?' Pippin said with a smile.

'Don't do that!' Regi snapped.

Pippin's smile faded, but he said, 'I often go out to greet the dawn. Makes my own troubles seem a bit smaller, somehow.'

Regi nodded, steadied himself, slapped his cousin on the back. 'I'm a little on edge,' he admitted. He met his cousin's eyes, but found no fear or anxiety there, only a calm acceptance. 'Aren't you at all apprehensive?' he asked.

Pippin chuckled. 'I've faced worse than Tooks,' he said, 'much worse.'

Regi nodded again. The two of them had talked deep into the middle night, Steward of Buckland and Steward of Tookland, coming to understand one another better, and Regi felt even more strongly that his choice of Pippin to follow Paladin as Thain had been the right one. Pippin lifted his chin, narrowing his eyes.

'What's the worst they can do?' he said. 'I've been captured by Orcs, you know. Tooks cannot be much worse than that.'

'A little worse, perhaps,' Regi said.

'Only a little?' Pippin laughed. 'Well, then, let us go to greet our doom. No use standing around here waiting for it to come to us.'

They walked together to the great room.

On the way, Regi asked, 'No fancy mail coat today?'

Pippin smiled grimly. 'D'you expect someone to try me with a knife?' At Regi's gasp, he said, 'O no, of course, that's not hobbits' way, they'd just bind me and cast me over the border, wouldn't they?'

Regi shook his head. 'Whatever did they teach you off in those foreign parts?' he said softly.

'That we're better off than we know,' Pippin answered. 'And I mean to keep it that way.' He sighed. 'In some ways, the Big Folk think so much bigger than we do, but in so many ways, Regi, they are more to be pitied. Their ways are not our ways, and for that I am very thankful.'

He went back to his cousin's original question. 'I do not think the Tooks are impressed by Captain Peregrin. They think me foolish for having travelled out of the Shire in the first place, and as far as throwing the ruffians out... well, Tooklanders did just fine on their own, thank you very much and do not stumble on your way out of the door, if you please.'

'And so you dress like any other hobbit,' Regi said quietly.

'I am any other hobbit. Aside from being a son of a Took, that is,' Pippin answered.

Regi smiled grimly at the epithet, suitable for provoking fisticuffs when spoken under other circumstances. 'I wouldn't say that too loud, lad,' was all he said.

Stopping on the threshold, Pippin said, 'Couldn't they fit any more in?'

Regi surveyed the tables, elbow-to-elbow with Took relations. 'No,' he said, shaking his head, 'not unless they start to sit atop the tables, and then someone might mistake them for sausage or bacon and stick a fork into them...'

Everard nudged Ferdibrand from where they sat at the head table. 'What's Regi playing at?' he said reflectively, gazing at the twain pausing in the doorway.

Ferdi looked around the tables, then over to the highest places at their table, reserved for Thain and Steward. As was custom, even when Thain Paladin was confined to his bed, a place was set for the Thain, with the Steward at his right hand. Earlier this morning, Reginard had put the Thain's seal in the centre of the plate where it had reposed at each formal meal since the Thain's death. The ring was taken away when the place settings were cleared, kept safe in Regi's pocket or on his hand as he conducted official business, then carefully set in the centre of the plate again when the table was set. This would continue, according to custom, until the new Thain was chosen and took up the seal.

'I don't see a place set aside for Pippin,' Ferdi said. 'The room is packed as tight as a box of apples. He'll have to stand up to eat. There should have been a place set for him between the Thain's plate and Eglantine.'

'Where did he sit last night?' Everard said. 'I wasn't at supper.'

Ferdi shook his head. 'He ate in Eglantine's rooms,' he answered. 'She almost never comes to the great room for meals anymore.'

'She did this morning,' Everard said. 'Regi's got something planned, I know it.'

'All the rest of the family know it, too,' Ferdi said. 'Rumour spreads in Tookland faster than tomato blight.'

'Aye,' Everard answered uneasily.

Just then, he saw Reginard nod to Pippin. His brother walked into the room to the Thain's place, pulled out the chair and ceremoniously waved Pippin to seat himself there. A barely suppressed gasp rippled around the room. Pippin glanced at the steward, bent with a smile to kiss his mother's cheek, then took the Thain's chair next to her.

The Tooks watched with bated breath as he picked up the seal of the Thain, weighing it in his hand, then gently set it on the table near the top of his plate. A collective sigh was heard. The steward seated himself, and the servants began to serve the first breakfast course.

'He didn't put it on,' Ferdi muttered. 'He scorns the Thainship?'

'What d'you want?' Everard answered. 'You'd've been outraged had he put the seal on his hand, now you're out of sorts that he didn't?'

'Hah,' was all Ferdi could muster.

Everard dropped his voice. 'Not even a king crowns himself, you know. Regi's got some kind of plan, to get the family to approve this... this...'

'Travesty?' Ferdibrand said.

Everard shot him a sharp glance and shook his head. 'What happened, Ferdi?' he asked quietly. 'You and Pip used to be quite close as lads.'

'First, he went off on an adventure, and didn't even tell me he was going!' Ferdibrand huffed. 'And then, he didn't bother to come back.'

'His father threw him out, as you recall,' Everard said.

'And why are you defending him, all of a sudden? Old Paladin just had a fit of temper, is all. He took him back, didn't he? But no, instead of coming back, Pippin chose to stay amongst the Bucklanders. As if Tookland wasn't good enough.'

Ferdi made a violent gesture as he continued. 'He threw everything away, all the plans we'd ever made of how we'd stir things up when he became Thain...' He spoke so low that Everard could hardly hear him above the clinking of silverware on plates and the chatter of hobbits eating and gossiping. Snatches of other conversations drifted over them.

'...didn't want to be Thain! I say if Tookland's not good enough for him, he can...'

'...see that limp?'

'That was from when he broke his leg last year, bad break I hear, had to learn to walk all over again.'

'And I hear his lungs are bad in the bargain. Is he well enough, I say?'

'...gallivanting off to foreign parts in the company of outlandish folk, just like old Mad Baggins. What's to say he doesn't go off again on a whim once he's Thain?'

'We don't need 'im! Regi's done a fine job since the old Thain took to his bed. If you ask me, I'd say he was running Tookland even before...'

'...duty to Tookland? Or, for good measure, what about his duty to the Shire? Some kind of dutiful son he was!'

'I dunno. If old Paladin'd been my da I might've done the same as him...'

'Hush! Don't speak ill of the dead!'

Everard shook his head, turning again to Ferdibrand. 'He threw it away, at that,' he agreed. 'If he'd just allowed himself to stay under the thumb of the Thain...'

Ferdi snorted. 'Could you?'

Everard said unexpectedly, 'We all did. Paladin ruled with an iron fist, he chose the tune and we danced to it, now, didn't we, lad? Half the Tooks are angry because his son refused to dance, wanted to choose his own tune.'

'If you're so understanding all of a sudden, why don't you give him a great welcome and jam the ring upon his finger, then?' Ferdi hissed. He subsided, stabbing a piece of sausage viciously with his fork. 'I know where I'd like to tell him to stick the thing...' Muttering, he applied himself to his breakfast, half-listening to the speculation going on about them.

Finally, he turned back to Everard and said, 'Why are you so set against it, anyhow?'

'Isn't it obvious?' the other said. 'Reginard is my brother, I want what's best for him. He's played second fiddle to the Thain all these years, been a fine steward, run Tookland all but in name the past few years... he ought to be Thain. He deserves the title, he's earned it. I trust him to do a good job for the people. He's throwing it all away. The Tooks will follow his lead, and he knows it.' He ground his teeth in frustration. 'He's going to put the seal on cousin Pippin and no one will dare to say "boo".'

'All right,' Ferdibrand said. 'Let him do it.' Everard glanced at him, startled to see him smiling grimly. 'Let him honour Thain Paladin's last wish, make his son Thain after him. We'll just wait for the fall, then pick up the pieces. When Regi sees the ruin Pippin makes of things, he'll realise he, Regi, was meant to be Thain all along. The people will forgive him this one error -- it's the only one he's made in all his years of being steward.'

Everard nodded. 'O aye,' he said softly. 'You have the right of it, young cousin. We'll keep a close watch, and when Pippin comes to ruin, we'll make sure Regi steps up... and we'll be right behind him. I'll be his steward, and you... I'm sure we can find something for you to do, as well.'

'Thank you, cousin Everard,' Ferdibrand answered. 'I shall hold you to that, you know.'

'Of that,' Everard answered, 'I have no doubt at all, my lad. Not a single doubt.' He bent back to his food as the plate was removed and the next course served.





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