Title: A Merry Life: Letters
Author: Anso the Hobbit
Beta: Marigold

Characters: Merry

Timeline: Brandy Hall, SR 1389, so Merry is seven years old

You had looked forward with anticipation and glee to the day you would start learning your letters and numbers, and you had followed Berilac´s progress with close eyes. When you´d turn seven, you would attend the formal tutoring sessions just like all of the Brandybuck children, but for a long time before that, you had diligently tried to write your name and draw little numbers under your mum´s or Frodo´s watchful eye. When the great day finally arrived, you entered Brandy Hall´s schoolroom with your head held high and your slate and chalk under your arm.

After a few days you discovered that just writing your name and the alphabet over and over wasn´t all that fun, so you soon became bored. Knocking your chalk against the edge of your slate, you found that it broke easily, and in pure boredom you started tossing little pieces of chalk around the room to get the other lads´ attention. Wouldn`t any of them soon be finished so you could go outside and play? You got your attention, but in addition to the lads, you also got the tutor’s, and when you didn´t stop throwing chalk when asked to, you were for the first time in your life hauled by your ear to the Master´s study and prompted to explain your actions to your da and grandda.

*****

Assisting Èomer with writing missives to Aragorn, and Rohan, and seemingly every dignitary there was, you felt like a child wielding the large billowy quill that you wrote with. Gandalf had firmly told the new King of Rohan that he could do far worse than make use of your head. And you had blushed when he said that there was a bright brain beneath those bright curls, and that Èomer would lose a good counsellor if he didn`t pay heed to your opinions. Èomer had appointed you to be his personal scribe while still in Minas Tirith, and asked you for advice often. Privately you thought that maybe there was another King behind this too, and as you rubbed your right hand and wrist, trying to take away the throbbing ache, you could almost hear Strider as he encouraged you to use your hand as much as possible.