Author's Note- If you have not read the prologue you likely should go back and do that.  It is short and moving.

Far and Away

By MysteriousWays

The sequel to Enigmas-The Life and Love of Linwe and Frodo

"...And a new earth across a wide ocean

This way became my journey

This day ends together,

Fay and Away"

-Book of Days as written by Enya

Chapter One

On Adjustments and New Friendships

"Oh! I’m going to be sick!" exclaimed Linwe. These words and Linwe’s sudden departure woke Frodo up. He quickly rose, snatched up a pocket handkerchief and submerged it in a pitcher of water which sat next to their bed, before following Linwe over to the ship’s rail where she stood on a box so that she could lean over. This was the way Frodo and Linwe had started their day for the last seven mornings. Their first morning on the ship was the first morning this happened. Frodo had been most alarmed when Linwe suddenly shot out of bed and ran up on deck to the side of the ship. Being too small to lean over the rail she was forced to put her head between the rail’s spindles. Frodo followed close behind and was shocked at how violently ill she was, he only paused a moment before shouting for Merenwen at the top of his voice. "It’s nothing to worry about, Frodo," Merenwen had said calmly upon her arrival at the scene.

"How can you mean it is nothing to worry about, she’s sick, and we are in the middle of the ocean. She should be home in bed."

"Frodo, you must calm down, it is in part because we are on the ocean that she is ill. There are those that become slightly nauseous from the movement of the ship going over the waves."

"This is hardly slightly nauseous!" cried Frodo as he flung a hand out in Linwe’s direction.

"No it isn’t, but then Linwe is with child as well. Expecting Hobbits sometimes suffer from bouts of nausea. I suspect it is the ocean and her pregnancy that is making Linwe sick."

"Well, aren’t you going to do something about it?" demanded Frodo.

"Yes," said Merenwen with a barely suppressed smile, "I am going to see that there is a bit of bread and fruit by her bed side each night so that when she wakes up she can eat before she even sits up."

"What? Why?" demanded Frodo, looking more bewildered and confused than before. He sank to his knees at Linwe’s side. Her heaving had subsided but she still leaned tiredly against the rails. Frodo eased her back so that she was leaning against him.

"As far as her pregnancy is concerned she is ill because she has not had anything to eat in quite a while. If she eats a little something before she so much as sits up then that should help calm her stomach. Hopefully this will suffice."

It hadn’t. The next morning Linwe did just as Merenwen had instructed. When Linwe woke up she immediately picked up a nearby piece of bread. She ate two bites, and then started to feel nauseous; she swallowed down two more bites, but then threw the bread to one side as she dashed to the rail to be sick again. Frodo was only a second behind her. As soon as he reached her side he took hold of her hair to keep it out of her way as she heaved up the recently consumed snack. That morning Frodo did not have to call for Merenwen, she appeared within a few moments carrying a cool damp cloth. "Hmm, I see that the bite to eat did not have the desired effect," said Merenwen as she helped to ease a now quiet Linwe to a sitting position on the deck while wiping her face with the cloth.

"What can be done for her now?" Frodo asked anxiously.

"I think tonight we will have to get Linwe up during the night for a light meal. I am almost certain it is that long absence of food during sleep that is causing most of this."

So Linwe had been awakened for meals during the night but then in the morning she would dash out of bed to be violently ill yet again. Different types of food were tried. Linwe was even awakened every two hours through the night. By the fifth morning Merenwen admitted defeat. "I’m sorry my dear ones. There is nothing else that I can think of to do. Most of what I know about Hobbit pregnancy I learned from Lila, and she was never sick like this. She admitted to some mild nausea but nothing to what I am seeing here. There are herbs that might have helped but I brought none of them with me. I had not anticipated needing to treat this."

"So does this mean Linwe just has to continue on like this every morning, until the baby is born?" Frodo asked in dismay.

"No, Frodo, the nausea should subside in a few weeks, when the first stage of pregnancy ends. The mornings until then will be unpleasant but we can be grateful that at the very least she is able to keep food down the rest of the day. The morning sickness isn’t doing any harm to her or the baby."

Frodo did not feel reassured. He found it quite disturbing to wake up each morning to his wife flying out of bed to be violently ill over the rail. At least she was no longer required to try and fit her head between the spindles of the rail. Gandalf had put a box by the rail so that Linwe could stand upon it and lean comfortably over.

~~~~~

Linwe eyes narrowed as she carefully scrutinized the game board before her. She was playing checkers with Bilbo. She had played against him several times over the last several days and was feeling rather annoyed because he kept winning. The first time Linwe accepted Bilbo’s offer for a game she had done so thinking that it was likely to be an easy game. Bilbo was, after all, very old, and he was forever dozing off. Linwe didn’t think he would even stay awake through that first game. Linwe had been greatly mistaken. From the moment that Bilbo reached out to make his first move, the years seemed to fall away and a fiery gleam lit up his eyes.

As determined as Linwe was to beat Bilbo at a game of checkers, her matches with him also served to help her get to know the old Hobbit. Bilbo was important to Frodo, but he was also the only other Hobbit she was likely to have around for the rest of her life, aside from any children she and Frodo had. After seven days at sea Linwe was starting to feel a certain loneliness that can only come from no longer living in a larger community of folk of one’s own kind.

The first few days of the voyage had gone by with barely a concern. She had spent those days only aware of Frodo, adjusting to the idea that they were to spend there lives together after all. The daily trips to the rail were tolerated as reminders that she was also once more with child. By the fourth day of travel, Linwe started looking about her and a sense of uneasiness began to set in. Not only was she surrounded by strangers, but she was surrounded by people who were not of her own kind, but rather Elves and one wizard, many of them great persons that she had read of. She was surrounded by water, as far as her eyes could see, and the only people she felt at ease with were Frodo and Merenwen.

"You have nothing to fear here, Linwe," said Merenwen, when Linwe admitted her nervousness to her elf friend.

"That is easily said but not as easily felt," replied Linwe, "Elves make me nervous."

Merenwen laughed, "But, dearest, you have known me all your life. Has my being an elf made you nervous?"

"Of course not. But I have never spent time with you among your own people. You have always come to visit me among mine. I think all of these years I never really saw you as an elf but more like and overly tall and too thin Hobbit"

"That does make sense," Merenwen said with a chuckle. Merenwen laid a comforting hand on Linwe’s back and smiled sympathetically. "I realize this is all a big adjustment for you. But you are among friends, though you do not know them as you know me. Everyone here is concerned for your happiness and well being. And they would all like to get to know you. They are simply waiting for you to show that you are ready to accept their friendship."

Thus was the start of Linwe’s efforts to get to know those people around her, whose reputations intimidated her to silence. She had started with Bilbo. He offered her a game of checkers and she accepted. Over those games Linwe and Bilbo found similar curious minds. Truth be told, Bilbo had been rather wary of Linwe. In his experience most Hobbitesses were mostly concerned with matters of the home, new dresses, and hair ribbons. Bilbo was delighted to find that Linwe had a sharp and curious mind as well as the customary strong instinct to nurture. After several games of checkers, during which Linwe displayed an ability to learn from his own moves on the board, Bilbo became sure that here was a lass worthy of his nephew. When Linwe got into a spirited discussion with him over the theoretical fairness of one of his moves, he came to see Linwe as a long missed niece. Heated arguments became the foundation of their caring relationship.

Linwe found herself friends with Gandalf before she had a chance to try. One morning, Linwe sat on deck her hands busy with knitting, Gandalf was nearby smoking a pipe. The silence between them was companionable. Knitting always relaxed Linwe, so she was only mildly startled when the old wizard spoke to her. "You look very much like your mother," he said without preamble.

Linwe stopped knitting to look at him in surprise. "You knew my mother?"

"I met her on a few occasions, yes," Gandalf said. Linwe noticed that the old man before her had a very kind and warm smile. "I used to meet up with your father nearly every time I passed through Bree. You mother, as I recall, was rather shy so I did not see her so often, but I remember she was quite pretty." Gandalf paused for a moment, "You know, I have just remembered that I have met you once before."

Linwe was surprised, "I have no recollection of meeting you."

"I would be surprised if you had. You were only an infant. You parents were doing a bit of shopping when I came upon them at the market square in Bree. I remember they were quite proud of you."

Linwe found herself feeling warm with the start of new friendship.

On their eighth morning at sea, Linwe was sitting in the common room in the aft of the ship, settling into a large breakfast. Linwe had a large plate before her filled with a variety of foods. "Linwe, how can you possibly eat so much? You were sick to your stomach barely an hour ago and now you are sitting down to a breakfast that would have daunted Pippin," Frodo said in amazement.

Linwe shrugged a little, "To be perfectly honest, I don’t know that I will eat it all. It’s just that everything on the buffet looks so good that I want to have a taste of all of it. Who is it that is doing the cooking?"

"That would be Elwe and Maeglin," replied Merenwen.

"They are elves?" asked Linwe with some astonishment.

"Yes, of course. They are brothers in fact," added Merenwen.

"Ah, it seems a little odd to think of elves doing anything so common place as cooking."

Galadriel smiled, "Our immortality has its limitations, dear one. We still have to eat and someone has to prepare that food."

Feeling encouraged by Galadriel’s smile, Linwe found herself questioning the Lady of Lothlorien, "Have you done any cooking?"

Galadriel’s smile became in even warmer and more inviting, she was truly pleased to have Linwe finally opening up. "I have, I particularly enjoy baking bread."

Linwe shook her head in disbelief, "It is difficult to imagine you up to your elbows in flour."

"I have been as you have just described, and I enjoyed it. Elves have much in common with the mortal races. We still require the necessities of sustenance, shelter, and clothing. We grow our own food, build our own homes, and sew our own clothes, from fabric we have woven ourselves. Like Hobbits we have those in our society who find they have an affinity to one of these more commonplace tasks. There are those who find great fulfillment in cultivating and growing food, those who find great pleasure in the preparation of that food. There are even those elves who find peace and contentment in doing those mundane tasks of maintaining the cleanliness and comfort of our homes. I myself take great pleasure in weaving. Were it not for my other responsibilities to my people I would in all likely hood spend my days at my loom, further perfecting and adding to my craft."

Curiosity had now overcome Linwe’s more bashful tendencies. "What will the Undying Lands be like?"

Galadriel smiled, "I think you will find that it is very much like Middle Earth. In that there are some cities rather like Minis Tirith, made up of buildings of stone. Then there are places more akin to Lothlorien and Rivendell."

Linwe sigh, "I have never seen any of those places. I would have liked to visit but the opportunity never presented itself."

"That is a pity. I assure you, Beloved One, you would have been most welcome."

Linwe frowned, "Why did you call me that? Why did you call me ‘Beloved One’?"

"Because it is your title among the elves. Merenwen, have you not told her of this?"

"No, my Lady, I am afraid it slipped my mind." Merenwen turned to Linwe, "It is customary among the eldar to bestow titles of honor or special names upon those that we hold in high regard. The Eldar have named you The Beloved One for you are the beloved of The Ring Bearer."

Linwe sat staring with wide eyes as she absorbed what she had just been told, "I don’t understand. I have done nothing to earn such consideration."

"You are mistaken," said Lady Galadriel, "Through your connection with Frodo you supported him in his task."

"I had no choice," Linwe protested quietly as tears started to trickle down her face.

Galadriel got up and moved to an empty seat next to Linwe. Galadriel reached out gently touching Linwe’s face turned her head so that their eyes met. "Linwe Taralom, you did have a choice. At anytime in all of your life you could have denied the call of Frodo’s heart. You did not have to love him, hear him, and share his burden."