Chapter 12. ...Sparks...

The fire was neither patient nor impatient, having no feelings to speak of, but it was steady, and rather slow, for little enough air could reach it, just enough to keep it smouldering away, working towards the body of the old stump, with too little vigour to give off enough smoke for anyone to notice. Slowly, ever so slowly, it journeyed towards light and air and life.

***

The picnic was eaten, and the Thain lay on his back on the grass, pointing out shapes in the clouds to his small son, telling outrageous stories as Diamond chimed in with an occasional idea of her own, or a chuckle.

'Will it rain, Da?' the lad asked suddenly.

'O no, Son, those are not rainclouds,' Pippin answered. 'More's the pity. We've had no rain to speak of this summer.'

'It's too late for rain to do any good,' Diamond put in. 'Harvest is upon us; too late to water the crops now... 'twould just spoil the hay were it to rain, and a hard rain or hail would spoil the wheat, you know.'

'I ought to put you in charge of the farming,' he told her.

She smiled. 'Just being in charge of the Thain is enough of a task for me, thank you very much,' she said tartly. 'You have very fine farmers working for you, as you are never tired of reminding your high-minded Took relations.'

'I'm hot,' Faramir said.

The Thain looked at his wife, who nodded. 'Enough time has passed,' he said. 'I think we'll swim now.'

Faramir grinned. 'I like the pool!' he said with enthusiasm. 'The little fishes tickle my toes!'

'You just keep wiggling those toes so the little fishes don't tickle them right off,' his father warned. 'They might think your toes are worms.'

'Their mouths aren't big enough,' the lad said practically. 'All they can do is tickle. I'll let them practice on my toes so that when they grow up they'll know what to do with a worm on a hook.'

'Good lad, you do that!' his father laughed. They stripped down to their underclothing and jumped into the little pool for a glorious splash and duck and tickle, while Diamond laughed from the bank and dabbled her feet.

'Won't you come in, my dear?' the Thain called.

'Not on your life, 'tis too cold for my blood!' she laughed back. 'You must be part fish!'

'Well, that makes our son part fish as well,' the Thain said, 'and so I must needs catch him!' With a roar he splashed after Faramir, who dived under the water to get away, swimming along the bottom with his father in splashing pursuit.

'Hold fast!' Pippin laughed when Faramir surfaced. 'You swim faster than I can run!'

'I'm a fish!' Faramir shouted. 'You'll have to get an Elf to catch me!'

'Or a bigger fish!' his father called in reply, and dove into the water. Before Faramir could get away, Pippin had grabbed him, stood up, and tossed him high in the air, squealing with glee. Catching him again, the father said, 'But I think our little fish has had enough of the water this day.'

'No!' protested the son, not realising his lips were blue and his teeth chattering.

'O aye,' said the father. 'You're as cold as a real fish. Come, Diamond, let's wrap him up and bake him in the sun a bit.'

Diamond had a blanket ready, and she wrapped it around her shivering son and laid him down in the warm sunlight. He soon fell asleep, and she stroked his wet hair back from his forehead and smiled.

'Another gold coin in his treasure box,' she murmured.

Pippin smiled. 'It has been a good day, hasn't it?' He lay back in the sun himself, closing his eyes, letting the warmth soak into him.

'How are things going?' Diamond asked softly.

'Ah, they are going along,' Pippin answered, not opening his eyes. 'I'm still Thain, at the moment.'

'Well, that's nice, I suppose,' she said. 'Was there any question?'

'The first year is the hardest, I hear. You have to go so carefully, you know. You do something the same way the old Thain did, and they ask why they need a Thain in the first place, with things just going on as they always did. You try to make a change, and they say, "But that's not the way Thain Paladin did things!" '

Diamond laughed. Pippin went on. 'It's been a dry summer. If the harvest is bad, I'll get the blame.'

'You really ought to have ordered more rain,' she said. '...but if it is a good harvest, won't they give you the credit?'

He opened one eye at her. 'You jest,' he said. Closing his eye again, he sighed. 'There's still talk about my fitness, you know.' He imitated an old gaffer, overheard in the marketplace. ' "He limps! How can he be a Thain with a gimpy leg?" ' Changing his voice to a low growl, he said ' "Aye, and his lungs, they're bad to boot. I hear a cold nearly carried him off last month." ' He snorted. 'Every cough is my "final illness", and every sneeze a death knell.'

Diamond said nothing, having found the heavy cold of the previous month rather worrisome, herself.

'It's like riding a pig without a saddle or bridle, you lose your balance for a second and you'll slip off.' He referred to a popular sport at the Mid-year's Day celebration, the pig race, wherein the rider not only had to guide the pig across the finish line but had to manage the feat without falling off the unwilling mount.

'And did you know...?' he continued, and sighed. 'Hah. I almost wish it were true.'

'What?' Diamond said.

'We're off to Gondor next week,' he opened his eye again at her gasp and grinned at her, 'or so I hear.' He stretched. 'O yes,' he nodded solemnly. 'Once a Took goes off to foreign parts, he's never the same, you know. Can't hardly settle down again, should he come back home at all. And a Took who's rubbed shoulders with outlandish folk such as Elves and Dwarves and Big People... well...' He closed the eye and sighed again.

Diamond shook her head sadly. 'O I know,' she said softly. 'There's absolutely no use hoping for them at all, they're lost. Hopelessly lost. Might as well light a candle for them on Remembering Day. They'll never come back.'

He opened both eyes. 'I came back!' he protested.

She smiled down into his face, dropped a quick kiss on the tip of his nose, and sat up again with a teasing grin. 'When have you ever done what was expected of you?' she said fondly.

***

Comments to reviewers, from original posting:

Pansy: Ah, yes, I am being literal. Getting more literal with each chapter, as you shall see.

Xena: Thanks for the feedback, especially the comments on your perception of the relationships. That is exactly what I am trying to establish... Pippin is a great father, taking all the good points of his own father and trying to leave the bad. (Don't we all do that?) And Diamond has never been one to keep her thoughts to herself, and they are usually pretty well-formulated thoughts, the lass has a fine head on her shoulders and was brought up right by sensible Farmer and Mistress Took (see "Jewels" for more details).

Dana: Thanks for helping me hammer out that wording. The Thain would never sound whiny, even in jest.

Frodo: Thanks for the encouragement!

Did I miss anybody? Thanks for the reviews, they have greased the wheels nicely. Or should I say added fuel to the fire?