Two Turtle Doves #2

Title:  "Flights of Fancy"
Fandom:  "Lord of the Rings'
Characters:  Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, and a seven-year-old Pippin Took
Rating:  very G
Brief Summary:  Pippin tries his hand at some rather unusual artwork.

                                       "Flights of Fancy"

“Frodo, what is Pippin doing?”  Bilbo whispered, leaning over so as not to be over-heard.                                           

“I don’t know, exactly,” Frodo admitted, following Bilbo’s gaze and looking over at his little cousin who sitting in the dirt and talking to himself.  “I am sure that it’s harmless enough.”

“I suppose so,” Bilbo agreed.  “Still, you might want to go over and have a closer look just to be sure.  I did give the lad paint, you know.”

“I wondered about that at the time,” Frodo said, standing up and moving away from the shade of Bag End to go over and see what Pippin was up to.  Frodo had not thought it a very good idea for Bilbo to give Pippin the paint, but Bilbo had merely smiled and assured him that it would be fine seeing as how Pippin would be outside.

“Hold still, now, or you’ll spoil it,” Pippin was saying to no one that Frodo could see as he approached from behind the child.  The seven-year-old didn’t notice him and continued.  “The other one was still, but you are moving about too much.  You’re spoiling the wings.”  Pippin sounded quite out of patience.  The child had some crumbled and discarded parchment tossed about him on the grass and was intent on something in his hands at the moment.

“What’s the matter, Pippin?” Frodo asked, as he leaned forward and looked over the child’s shoulder.

“This one won’t hold still, Frodo,” Pippin said, holding up his captive for his older cousin to see.  “He keeps moving and it’s messing up my painting.”

“Pippin, you aren’t supposed to be painting on live creatures,” Frodo frowned, taking the wiggling form from his cousin and staring at it curiously.  “What in all of wonder are you trying to paint on here?” 

“I was trying to paint on it just like this other one, here,” Pippin said, pointing to his earlier victim and smiling.  “See how much better this one turned out?”

Frodo looked at the other and tried hard not to laugh.  “Pippin, why are you painting wings on these little turtles?”

“To help them move faster,” Pippin said, brightly, looking up at Frodo with splashes of white paint streaking his cheeks and decorating his curls.  “They’re kinda slow and the other animals always pass them up and so I thought if they had wings, then they could go faster.  My sister, Pearl has a couple of doves that she feeds. They come to our smial every day and eat the seeds that she puts out and they have awful pretty white wings and so I thought that I would give these turtles, dove wings!”

Frodo bit his lower lip to keep back the laughter and nodded as he handed the wiggling turtle back to Pippin.   

“That one there is moving pretty good anyway, but I still thought it might help him some,” Pippin reasoned.  “Besides, it makes them pretty.”

Frodo backed away quickly and retreated to the safety of Bag End’s shade where Bilbo was waiting for him.  “Well, is there anything amiss?” Bilbo asked, worriedly.

“No, but some of your turtles may be a bit more decorative than they normally are,” Frodo snickered. 

“The lad is painting the turtles?”  Bilbo asked, scratching his head.

“Seems Pippin is making a couple of your turtles into doves,” Frodo said.  Bilbo looked a bit confused, but Frodo was unable to say more at that moment because he could now imagine two small, green, winged turtles flying about the garden and frightening the life out of Gaffer Gamgee and he found himself over-come with laughter.

The end

G.W.     12/27/2004