Chapter 43. A Trail to Lake Evendim

They didn't exactly gallop to the Bridge, it was too hot for that. They did make good time, though, and it was just midday when the Thain and his son reached the North Gate.

'Right on time,' Pippin laughed, patting his pony's neck. 'Socks couldn't have done any better.'

'It seems our escort has arrived early,' Faramir answered, indicating the tall figures in black and silver uniforms, sitting on tall horses by the Bridge, gawked at by hobbits crossing into and out of Buckland by way of the Bridge.

'They always do,' his father answered. 'Tactical advantage, you know. It would have been terribly rude of us to leave early and get to the Bridge before they did.'

Seeing their arrival, one of the figures got down from his horse to greet them, calling out 'Pippin!' with a broad grin. The tall guardsman stood eye to eye with the hobbits riding pony-back.

The Thain grinned back. 'Bergil, as I live and breathe.'

The guardsman sobered abruptly. 'I'd heard there was some question about that,' he said.

Pippin laughed. 'Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,' he said.

The guardsman shook his head in wonder. 'You must have some kind of luck...' he breathed, '...from what I've heard...'

'You know what they say about luck, in the Shire,' the Thain said.

'Enlighten me.'

'If hobbits were trees, and a windstorm blew down the forest, the last tree standing would be a Took.'

'You wouldn't be that Took, though,' Bergil chuckled. 'Not from what I've heard. Troubles seem to follow you like gnats.'

'Ah, well,' the Thain said philosophically. 'At least my life is never boring.' He nodded to Faramir. 'Allow me to present my son. Faramir, this is Bergil, my second friend in Minas Tirith. His father Beregond was my first.'

Bergil's eyebrows lifted. 'Faramir?' he said. 'My father serves Prince Faramir of Ithilien.'

'Well, this is Prince Faramir of the Shire... or the closest thing hobbits have to such a thing,' Pippin grinned, 'so you're keeping good company.'

Faramir met the guardsman's curious look with a clear-eyed gaze of his own. 'At your service,' he said correctly.

Bergil bowed. 'And at your family's,' he answered.

'Are we ready to depart?' the Thain asked.

'In a moment,' Bergil answered. 'We are awaiting one more, he went into the guardhouse to have a word with your Shirriff. Ah,' he said as the door opened and a tall figure ducked to pass through the low doorway, 'here he comes now.'

Pippin's grin brightened as he recognized an old friend. 'Strider!' he called. The long legs of the King brought him rapidly to the Thain and his son.

'Peregrin,' he said softly. 'I didn't know we would meet again. When we passed through Bree, there hadn't been any news out of the Shire since Sam and Rosie's escort returned to Bree at the end of May to await our coming. They asked when they left the Mayor at the Bridge, but heard nothing of the Thain. When I sent to invite the Thain to join us at Lake Evendim, I wasn't sure if it would be you... or your son.'

'Well, you have us both in the bargain!' Pippin chuckled, then sobered. 'Faramir's too young to be Thain,' he said absently. 'It would have been Reginard, had he seen fit to come.'

'How fit are you to travel?' the King asked quietly.

'I am completely recovered, thanks to my old friends Treebeard and Samwise Gamgee,' Pippin said. 'Shall we go?' he added, firmly cutting off further discussion of his health.

The King shook his head in wonder. 'All right,' he said.

'But first, may I present my son?' Pippin said. 'King Elessar, this is Faramir Took, my firstborn.'

Faramir bowed from his position on the pony's back. 'At your service, and your family's, my liege,' he said.

The King nodded in return. 'It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,' he said. Turning to Pippin, he added. 'Would you care to ride with us and lead your ponies? We will make better time that way.'

'And we won't have to shout to make conversation,' Pippin grinned. 'Certainly!' The hobbits climbed down from their ponies and were lifted into the saddles of tall horses, Pippin with the King and Faramir in front of Bergil. Guardsmen took the ponies' reins in lead and the party were off.

Not far from the Bridge, they turned off on a path going northwards along the eastern side of the River.

'Ah, I thought we'd go to Bree and take the road going north,' Pippin commented.

'We could do that,' the King said, 'but it is quite out of the way to go all the way to Fornost and then over to the Lake. This is more direct, and prettier. It follows the River most of the way.'

'I've been on this path before, you know,' Pippin said to Faramir and Bergil, who rode at the King's side.

'O? You've been to Lake Evendim?' Elessar said, interested. 'I didn't know hobbits travelled from the Shire, with a few exceptions.'

'No,' Pippin shook his head, chuckling at an old memory, 'not all the way to the Lake. And hobbit lads can be quite adventurous, not to mention foolhardy, my son not excepted.'

Faramir grinned in answer but deigned not to comment.

'Even not-so-young hobbit lads can be quite adventurous,' Bergil said with a sparkle in his eyes, and he and Pippin laughed in shared memory. 'So what happened?'

'Well, the older lads had given us the slip, again, to go fishing or somewhat, and we were to stay behind at the Hall until they deigned to return for us. So we decided to do a little exploring on our own.'

'Who was this?' Faramir asked.

'Merry's cousins Doderic, Ilberic and I. We were very close in age, and usually weren't allowed out without an older cousin to watch over us. We were going to show them! We wheedled some bread and cheese from the cooks for a "picnic by the River", and started off up the road to the North Gate. Took us quite awhile to get there... but we were young and foolish and full of energy. Just as we got to the Gate, a farmer was passing through with a herd of cattle, so we gave him a hand, driving them, looking just like farm lads. The guards let us through without question, when what they ought to have done was to send us packing back to the Hall...'

His eyes looked into a far distance. 'We followed him to the middle of the Bridge and waved farewell, just stood looking over awhile, throwing sticks down into the water. Then we started to wonder where the River came from... Next thing you know, we were walking along the Riverbank to the North. It was rough going, and we were about to turn back when we stumbled upon this convenient path.'

The King laughed. 'Roads go ever on and on...' he quoted.

The Thain smiled. 'Yes, Bilbo used to like to warn us against going out the door, to follow a path to a lane to a road, to be swept off our feet and into an adventure...'

'What happened then?' Bergil asked.

'Foolish lads that we were, we thought we would keep going, just to see what was around the next bend. Another bend, of course! So we had to see what was around that one...'

'Another bend, of course!' Faramir laughed.

Pippin eyed his son. 'I can see you've followed a similar path in your time,' he remarked. 'We walked until the woods started darkening, and we realized the Sun was seeking her bed, and we were an awfully long way from ours... and worst of all the bread and cheese were all gone!'

'Horrors,' said Faramir.

'It started to get dark and cold,' Pippin said. 'We were afraid of losing the path in the dark and becoming lost forever, so we huddled together beneath a tree, trying to share our warmth, not a cloak between us.'

Faramir shivered, and Bergil looked down with a smile.

'It got worse,' Pippin said.

'Worse?' Bergil asked.

'There were scuffles and snuffles in the darkness around us. We, each of us, picked up a large stick and huddled again. They weren't going to eat us without a fight.'

'How old were you at the time?' Elessar asked.

'Younger than Faramir, here. Pretty small to be wandering about by ourselves. You can imagine what was going on back at the Hall when we were missed.'

'So what happened?' Faramir wanted to know. 'You never told me this story.'

'Didn't want you to get ideas in your head,' his father said fondly. 'Well, we'd walked far enough to be pretty tired. Something amazing happened. We all fell asleep.'

'You fell asleep!'

'Aye. But that is not the amazing part. When we awakened, in the middle night, we were covered with a blanket, and a bright fire was blazing in the clearing, with more wood piled nearby.'

'Who did it?'

'We never found out. When they found us the next morning, the blanket was gone, but the fire was still going. Merry and Uncle Saradoc looked about for tracks but found no sign.'

'Amazing,' Faramir said. The King was thoughtful and silent, a smile playing about his lips.

Pippin glanced at him. 'I've wondered, Elessar, since you told us that Rangers guarded the Shire, if some Ranger had pity on three frightened, exhausted, cold hobbit lads.'

The King chuckled. 'Probably watched over them the whole night, as well, to make sure none of those scuffles and snuffles became real enough to menace them.'

Pippin's glance sharpened. 'Strider!' he said accusingly. 'You?'

The King laughed. 'It could have been,' he admitted. 'But I'm not the only Ranger who ran across hobbits astray in the wilds.' He smiled at Pippin. 'And for such a quiet, stay-at-home people as yours, I am astounded at how many young hobbits I found myself guarding, all unawares, over the years.'

Pippin shook his head in wonder. 'And we've never known...'