Title: A rocky path
Author: Anso the Hobbit
Characters: The Fellowship
Timeline: Hollin, SR 1419
Note: Not betaed.

“Ow!” Sam muttered as he tried to step carefully on the rocky ground beneath his feet. For some time now, their path had been treacherous and the talk had dwindled down as the hobbits concentrated more on where they put their feet than what surrounded them.

“What is it, Sam?” Frodo said, concerned.

“It`s nothing. I just stepped wrong, is all.” Sam said, trying to ignore the pain in his foot and ankle.

“Are you sure?” Merry, who had been walking behind them stopped in his tracks. “I knocked my toes against some rocks a bit back there. It`s easy to get hurt if you don`t watch where you`re going.”

Sam nodded. He couldn`t gainsay that. If he only watched a bit more closely where he put his feet he wouldn`t get hurt. For a moment Sam almost wished for boots. With your feet tucked inside boots like Gimli`s sturdy ones your feet would be protected from the rocks. It looked difficult to walk like that though.

“Everything all right?” Legolas asked as he came up to them, Pippin at his side.

“Yes.” Sam said. He took a better hold of Bill`s lead and started walking again. He didn`t manage to go far though, as a searing pain shot up through his foot. He swore under his breath and trudged on, bowing his head in concentration.

“Sam!” This time it was Pippin who caught his attention. “You can`t walk. You`ve been hopping along on one foot long enough. Let Strider have a look at it.”

“Oh, no, Mr. Pippin. Mr. Strider is up front talking important business with Mr. Gandalf. I couldn`t bother them.”

“No?” Merry said. “Then I will. You can`t continue like that.” He quickened his pace and ran up beside Aragorn and Gandalf.

A few moments later, Sam was seated on a boulder and Aragorn was looking his foot over. A sharp pebble had buried itself in his foot and as gently as possible Aragorn eased it out. He wet a cloth in water from one of the Company`s water bottles and cleaned the wound. Sam`s ankle looked swollen and Aragorn thought it was twisted.

Sam bit his lip against the pain, but couldn`t help but suck in his breath as Aragorn cleaned the wound and probed at the sole of his foot and the ankle. The other hobbits had gathered around them and Frodo was keeping a steadying hand on Sam`s shoulder.

“There.” Aragorn said at length. “I`ll wrap a bandage around it and you should be fine. I think you ought to keep your weight off it for the time being. I`ve removed the stone but your ankle is twisted.” He turned to face the rest of the Fellowship. “Would you carry him, Boromir?”

“Oh no, sir. Mr. Boromir shouldn`t be bothered with that. I`m sure I can walk.”

“Stand up and let us see.” Gandalf said. “You would only slow us if you can`t walk properly.”

That spurred Sam into motion and gingerly Sam slid down from the boulder and put first his good foot then the hurt one down. Pain shot through his leg and he lifted the hurt foot again.

“Aragorn is right. I will carry you.” Boromir bent and lifted a protesting Sam. “Wrap your arms and legs around me.”

“Don`t worry, Sam.” Frodo said, trying to reassure his friend. “Relax and enjoy the ride.”

“But Mr. Frodo. It isn`t right. If anyone should be carried, it`s you.”

“Oh, I`m sure I`ll get my portion of being carried too, Sam. Right now it`s your turn.”

Sam couldn`t gainsay Frodo on that. They walked the rest of the night with Gimli or Legolas leading Bill and after a few hours, Aragorn took over carrying Sam. As the first light of dawn brightened the sky in the east, they halted and made camp. Aragorn looked at Sam`s foot again.

“You don`t need to get on your feet more today, Sam. Merry and Pippin are already working on supper or breakfast if you will, so I`m going to make a poultice and wrap your foot in and by tonight I think you should be ready to walk again. How does that sound?”

“I can help.” Sam tried.

“Sam!” Frodo had sat down beside them, watching as Aragorn tended Sam`s foot.

“If you say so.”

“Yes I do. I`m sure Merry and Pippin will manage just fine with making supper and they won`t break any of your pans.” Frodo smiled. “Rest now.”

Reluctantly, Sam did rest and as it were the supper the two younger hobbits had cooked were quite pleasant and Aragorn had even consulted him when it came to what herbs to use in the poultice that now was wrapped around his foot, both easing the swollen ankle and keeping the wound from the pebble clean.

When darkness fell, the Fellowship ate breakfast and soon set out again. Sam stood on his foot and to his and everyone`s relief he could both stand on it and walk on it.

“What did you do?” He asked Aragorn in wonder. Surely the Ranger had asked him for his thought about the herbs to wrap the foot in, but he must have done something else… used some of that elven magic he seemed to have, man as he was.

“I did not do anything you didn`t witness. It`s all your doing. I only used herbs you suggested or agreed to use. You know a great deal, Master Gamgee, and today you have healed yourself with your knowledge.” Aragorn said, looking at him. “That is no little feat.”

“See? What would we ever do without you?” Frodo said.

Sam wasn`t sure how Frodo would have managed without him so he refrained from answering and only smiled. Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin were good for a great deal of things but no-one knew his Frodo as Sam did, and Sam knew that.

“I`m glad you`re with me.”

END