PART THREE: The River

The Fellowship paddled on for quite some time. Merry and Boromir soon found a rhythm that was not too slow for the long-armed man or too fast for the little hobbit. At first they didn`t talk much. The sadness over leaving Lothlòrien lay heavily on them all and now and again Merry observed Pippin brushing away a tear. The sun was covered in mist as they paddled on and dusk came early. They ate a little of the waybread for tea and by the time it was nearing suppertime Merry felt stiff and sore from sitting in the same position for hours, plying the oar. He and Pippin had switched positions a few times so that both Merry and Boromir could use the other arm to paddle with, but other than that Merry had allowed himself no relief. As they switched again, Pippin protested.

“I can paddle, Merry! Let me take a turn!” Pippin said, crossing his arms and glaring at Merry. “You have been paddling for hours and you are stiff and cramped from sitting in the same position for so long.”

“So are you, Pippin.” Merry retorted, but when Pippin mentioned it, he realised that he did feel stiff and he rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. He couldn`t remember ever paddling for this long and his hands felt sore and stiff too. He flexed his fingers, feeling his skin tighten. He himself had taught Pippin to row and paddle but Pippin was still a tweenager and so sometimes a bit clumsy and they didn`t have more than one set of oars for each boat. What if he lost one in the river and they couldn`t pick it up again?

“I can`t believe that you`re sitting there thinking I might lose an oar Merry!” Pippin was angry now. “Give me that.” He held out his hand demandingly and stared at Merry until his cousin reluctantly relinquished the paddle. “I cannot believe you.” Pippin said and thrust the oar into the water, pushing hard.

“Lads!” Boromir said. “I beg you not to quarrel. Let Pippin take a turn Merry. I`m sure he`s capable of it. I presume you taught him yourself, and knowing you, you wouldn`t give up until his proficiency met your satisfaction, hmm?”

“I`m sorry Pippin.” Merry finally said, then turned and looked at Boromir. “And you are right. There`s no reason to quarrel.”

“The sun has gone down now, Merry. Why don`t you lie down and get some sleep? I`m sure you can make a suitable nest out of our bedrolls.”

“All right.” Merry crawled down from his seat and sat down in the bottom of the boat, searching through the packs for their blankets. He knew that standing up in a boat was never a good thing unless you had someone or something counter-balancing the weight. Before they left, the elves had told them that even the slight weight of a hobbit might turn these boats upside-down very quickly if they were put off balance. And Merry knew from countless years of playing in round little coracles and sturdy rowboats in and about the streams and ponds and rivers of the Shire that these elven boats were balanced differently than the type of watercraft he was used to. These elven boats were balanced in the centre, but had several points of balance. Two people of approximately the same weight could stand up in the boat and it would float even if they stood as far apart in the boat as possible.

Boromir was sitting at the stern and Pippin in the bow, leaving Merry in the middle with the gear and facing a dilemma. The problem was that he needed to relieve himself, which could be a tricky proposition, and not one that any of them in their boat had yet attempted. Probably Pippin and Boromir were equally apprehensive and it just happened to be Merry’s luck to have the first try. Merry carefully placed the bedrolls, food and packs on the starboard side of the boat and positioned himself on the port side opposite to Pippin. Standing up slowly he spoke.

“Could you both stop paddling for a minute? I need to…” He blushed a little. This wasn`t something the Company ever really needed to talk about. If one of them needed to answer nature`s call he`d just step behind a convenient rock or tree and get it over with without any fuss. This was different however. There was nothing Merry could use for privacy here. “You know. I need to go.”

“Ah!” Boromir said, smiling. He pulled his oar up and out of reach of where Merry was aiming and politely turned his gaze in the other direction. Pippin, who had his oar on the other side of the boat also pulled the paddle up and turned and grinned at Merry before he too looked away.

Merry balanced himself carefully and leaned forward. The boat moved a little sideways beneath them, but didn`t tip over. His endeavour successful, Merry sat back down in the bottom and Boromir and Pippin started paddling again.

How to manage to sleep at the bottom of this slender boat was another problem. The wooden frame of the boat was on the inside, and it was too narrow between the wooden ribs for Merry to lie down and sleep, even if he curled up. Thinking a little, he folded a blanket across one of the ribs as a pillow and tried to place his body so that if he lay along the bottom he had his head and a shoulder on one of the ribs and his ankles propped across another. Finally he managed to find a position where he could sleep, and lulled by the movement of the boat and the rhythmic sound of the paddles in the water, Merry slept.

Pippin and Boromir paddled on, and when Aragorn hailed them to make camp, Boromir simply lifted the still sleeping Merry out of the boat and put him down beside where Aragorn had placed a sleeping Frodo. Sam carefully put an additional blanket over them both. Pippin took their gear out of the boat and watched as Boromir turned it upside down. He then helped Legolas find firewood before seeking his own bedroll.

*****

“Wake up, Mr. Frodo!” Merry heard Sam say. He felt a hand shake his own shoulder and he turned over and rubbed his eyes. How did he come to be sleeping beside Frodo and not in the bottom of the boat? When had they stopped?

“Good morning, sleepyheads!” Pippin said as his cousins sat up. Frodo and Merry looked at each other for a moment, clearly not remembering falling asleep beside each other.

“What? Morning?” Frodo said, muzzily.

“You fell asleep in the boat and when we finally stopped Strider carried you over to sleep the rest of the night here.” Pippin said. “Boromir did the same with Merry, saying that he had been rowing half the day and into the evening so he needed the rest.” Pippin yawned and mock-glared at Merry. “I paddled half the night and it seems to me that I’ve barely closed my eyes, but I suppose that I can sleep a bit more in the boat when we set off.”

“Yes, yes.” Merry said, not quite awake and a bit out of sorts. But to himself Merry was glad that Pippin had managed so well. That was no little feat for one who wasn`t accustomed to such an effort for any length of time.

Gimli started a small fire, and Sam saw to it that tea was brewing.

“I wonder,” Merry said, “are there fish in the river? Do you know, Boromir?”

“Yes. There should be enough fish in this river to sustain even the hungriest hobbit until he grows gills Meriadoc.”

Merry laughed. “I`ll get some for us then.” The Company had done some fishing earlier during their Quest, but mostly it had been Aragorn or Legolas catching it from remote streams that were too difficult for the hobbits to reach. Merry felt a chill go down his spine as he remembered the result of a fishing trip Pippin had set out on and which had left Pippin with a cold and himself with a case of the Winter Sickness.* None of the hobbits cared to fish after that.

“I`m not sure if that is wise, Merry.” Aragorn said.

“He`s a Brandybuck,” Pippin chimed in. “They`re born with a fishing pole in their hands!”

“Don`t exaggerate.” Merry said and gave Pippin a playful swat.

“That is good and well! But I do remember what happened the last time this Brandybuck tried to fish, or shall we say help a certain Took who went fishing, hmm? I do not want a repetition of that.” Aragorn said,

“Strider!” Merry walked over to stand in front of the Ranger and crossed his arms over his chest. “Both the water and the weather are warmer, the river is shallow here by the bank and I’ll bet there`s fish aplenty! The conditions are far from what they were when Pippin tried to fish back then.” He glared at the Ranger. “And I can swim. You know that.”

After looking at the slow current of the river, Aragorn turned his gaze back to the determined hobbit in front of him. He should give the lad a chance. After all, during the unfortunate episode before, he had only jumped in to save Pippin and also important to the hobbits, their meal, and he shouldn`t be gainsaid for that. He had taken enough responsibility on himself back then and had blamed himself for getting ill and slowing their journey long after he was well again.

“All right. But be careful.” Aragorn finally said, looking sternly at Merry, but with a twinkle in his eye.

“Thank you.” Merry said and immediately started to look for sticks he could make spears of. “Frodo? Do you want to go fishing with me?” Merry said, seeing Frodo sitting lost in thought and thinking that maybe his cousin needed a distraction. There was no response.

“Frodo?”

“Yes? Hm… Oh, fishing. Yes, I`ll come fishing with you Merry.”

Merry walked over to Frodo and handed him a stick and they went back to the shore and sat down on one of the boats. They had all been turned upside down so they wouldn`t float away and also to provide shelter for their things if it started to rain.

Merry took out his knife from his belt and expertly started to sharpen the end of his stick. Frodo did the same with his stick and for a while they sat silently whittling. Merry sensed Frodo wasn`t in a mood to talk and knowing when not to pry, he put his knife back and waded knee-deep into the river. The current was slow, just as he had said, and Merry could stand firmly on the bottom without struggling to keep his feet. Frodo joined him a moment later.

As Boromir had predicted there were plenty of fish, and soon Frodo and Merry had caught enough for breakfast for them all. Sam fried the fish with some greens he had found and so they all sat down to breakfast.

*****

When breakfast and washing up was done, Aragorn summoned them all for a little council.

“I sense within you the same that I feel,” he said as they all had sat down around their dying fire. “None of us wishes to hurry to meet the peril that lies ahead of us. We are content to let the day go as it may, and for the nonce we might do that. However, we should not tarry and we will start early each day and continue well into the night. Time is passing. We have been in the lands beyond time and I think that you, like me, felt that time had no meaning in the Golden Wood. We must shake off that feeling now. Let us rest and let the current take us downstream as it will, for we will need our strength for the days to come.”

With that they packed up and entered the boats again. In Merry and Pippin`s boat Boromir steered them out from the shore and now and again gave a gentle push with the oar so that their boat would stay in the middle of the river with the others. It wasn`t long before Pippin became bored and started to fidget.

“Stop that, will you?” Merry said after a while. There was only so much you could do while sitting in a boat and the banks on each side of the river didn`t have very exciting views either. They were still covered in trees and aside from a bird here and there flying over them, the world seemed quiet. “Why don`t you get some rest? You slept little enough as it was last night.”

“All right.” Pippin yawned and stretched and lay down as Merry had the night before on the bottom of the boat. Merry wrapped a blanket snugly about him and within a few minutes Pippin slept.

Merry spent most of the day thinking. Boromir was quiet and avoided conversation for the most part. That was unlike him. Boromir was a warrior, but Merry thought that he and Pippin had managed to loosen him up a bit and get him to talk a bit more as they had journeyed together. Of course, being a man, Boromir didn’t chatter away continuously as he and Pippin often were accused of doing. He answered questions, would tell an occasional story if asked, and would talk for some time if the mood took him. Merry decided that it was some time since that mood had taken him. There was something about him that had changed since Lórien.

Then there was what lay ahead of them to think about. How long would they be relatively safe? How was Frodo doing? Merry wished he could be in Frodo`s boat and talk to him or that they would stop and make camp soon, but Aragorn had said they were to continue a good while after it was dark. Merry sighed.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Pippin asked, awake from his nap. He sat watching Merry`s concentration, his faraway eyes and furrowed brow out of the corner of his own eye, almost seeing the workings going on inside his cousin’s head. A bit of conversation would not go amiss about now.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing really. Just this and that.” Merry answered, his thoughts far away.

Pippin positioned himself to properly look at him. “You`re not worrying yourself into a state again, are you?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.” Merry reassured him, looking him in the face, smiling.

“Good.” Pippin returned the smile then turned to look at their surroundings again.

Merry didn`t feel at ease talking with Pippin about what he was actually thinking about in front of Boromir and Boromir could use some distraction too, Merry decided. “Do you have boats like these in Gondor?” He asked.

“No, not as narrow and slim as these.”

“What are they like?” Merry asked, genuinely interested.

“There are several kinds, depending on their use.“ Boromir continued to explain about the different boats in Gondor and what they were used for. Merry found that they had several similar types of boats in Buckland and so they discussed similarities and differences for a while. The hobbits learned that Gondorian children played with toy boats and that the warriors learned to row as part of their training. “So you see, lads, even if much is different between men and hobbits, there are things that are the same.”

“Yes,” Pippin said. “Except that no proper hobbit plays around in boats and swims. That`s mostly a Brandybuck peculiarity.”

“But you know how to swim and row and you aren`t a Brandybuck.” Boromir said.

“No, I most certainly am not. But Merry has taught me.”

“Who taught you to swim and master boats, Merry? Your father?”

“Yes, partly, but I learned a good deal from Frodo actually. He`s a Brandybuck too you know.” Merry said proudly.

It wasn`t long before Pippin had Boromir laughing by telling him about happy summer days spent fishing and messing about in the boats of Buckland and swimming in the shallows of the Brandywine, and so the rest of the day passed pleasantly. After a few hours, Merry took the paddle so Boromir could get some rest. He had not slept much the previous night and he now slept until Merry roused him when Aragorn hailed them.

“Wake up Boromir, we`re making camp.”

“It`s dark already!” Boromir said, rubbing his eyes.

“Yes. You`ve slept for several hours.”  Pippin said.

“I have.” Boromir said, sitting up and looking about when suddenly his stomach rumbled loudly.

“You`re hungry!” Pippin said gleefully. It was still a bit of a marvel to him that the Big Folk could go with so little food when they were so very big.

“That`s a first!” Merry laughed. He couldn`t remember having heard Boromir`s stomach rumble before.

Boromir laughed. “Well, if I`m hungry then you two must be famished.”

“Oh, we`ll survive.” Merry said. “We had a bit of lembas for tea.”

“Speak for yourself.” Pippin said. “I`m hungry again.”

Boromir laughed. “There you have it.”

“We didn`t eat that much lembas Merry. And if you had let me eat some more I wouldn`t be hungry now and neither would you.”

“How do you know he is hungry?” Boromir asked.

“I know him. He`s just pretending to not be hungry because we have to ration the food.”

“Merry?” Boromir said.

“Yes, yes. It`s true. You do know me all too well Pippin.” Merry said. “But we do have to ration the food and if you eat all you want every time you are hungry there won’t be enough.”

“Enough for what?” Pippin said, suddenly serious.

“To last us until we can re-provision somewhere of course.” Merry answered lightly. “But I am not sure where that might be exactly, as we don’t know which way we are going to go yet.”

”The need to replenish our supplies is yet another good reason for us to make for Minas Tirith before beginning the darkest stretch of our journey,” Boromir said. The provisions we have now should at least be enough to last us until we can get to Rohan. There we can acquire new provisions before continuing to the White City.” Boromir said.

“How far is Rohan?”

“At least a week`s travel on these boats and then some days on foot I should think.” Boromir said.

“That isn`t too long.”

“No, but we need to be prepared for every eventuality and ration the food nonetheless.” Boromir said and steered them to shore.

The hobbits didn`t have any reply to that. It was once again brought home to them that this was no boating trip on the Brandywine with a large picnic basket and a warm smial and a soft bed at the end of the day.

 * ”Of Fish and Feverish Hobbits"