Chapter 14 – In Healing Hands

Flynn rode fast ahead of the search party and reached the Hall just before dinner was to be served. He ran into the dining hall, attracting the attention of every servant and the few dozen residents already sitting to table.

“Mistress Esmeralda!” he called, looking around and not finding the matron.

“She hasn’t arrived yet,” Saradas said, standing up from the head table and dashing down to join the bounder. “What has happened?”

“They found him, sir,” Flynn panted. “They are on their way. They need the healer, Mistress Talia. The lad, he is not well.”

“She will be found and she will need to speak with you before the others arrive, to ascertain the lad’s exact condition,” Saradas said. “What of the others? How do they fair?”

Flynn nodded. “They are well and whole, if tired and worried for Master Frodo.” Flynn lowered his voice then so only Saradas could hear, regret in his voice and eyes. “He was not responsive by the time they got him out of the Forest.”

Saradas nodded. He placed a gentle hand on the worn bounder’s shoulder. “Sit. Rest. Get some food. You will be sent for once Mistress Talia is located and ready to speak with you.” Saradas turned and pointed at another hobbit. “Find the healer and her apprentice, wherever they might be. Be quick about it. I will locate everyone else.”

The two hobbits left the hall and split ways in the tunnels, and Flynn sank into a chair as the rest of the hall erupted into excited chatter. Flynn, much to his chagrin, found he had no lack of dining companions.

Saradas quickly found his mother, sisters, Esme and Alamanda. They went outside to await the search party and Saradas continued on to find Berylla and Gil’s parents. By the time the search team arrived a half-hour later, all the Master’s family, as well as Marimas’s and Gil’s, were outside waiting for the carts to pull up. Mistress Talia was also there, as was Fuchsia, who had left the dining hall with Flynn after pleading with her father and finally winning.

Alamanda saw the carts first and everyone stood up taller in vain attempts to see into the traps. They could not see Frodo anywhere, but Esme spotted her husband in the first trap and knew that Frodo was laying in that one.

The carts pulled to a stop and Sara gathered his bundle carefully into his arms as everyone else jumped out and greeted those awaiting them. Del embraced Rufus and Milo, Ami greeted Dodi and Dino with sisterly kisses, Gilda kissed Rory on the cheek and forehead, and Alamanda hugged Marimas tightly, as did Berylla with Mac. Saradas clapped Edic on the back, and Gil’s father did likewise while his mother and Fuchsia both tried to be first to hug him. The bounders tipped their hats to everyone and as soon as Saradoc was off the trap, they left to return to the Bridge Inn, for the Hay Gate had already been closed for the day.

Esme was unaware of the tears flowing down her cheeks as she hugged her husband close and looked down at the dirty, bruised form of her young cousin. Frodo was asleep and limp in Sara’s arms, a dead weight, and Esme was not given much time to look at him. Talia was at their side almost instantly and ordered Saradoc to bring the child to her rooms post haste. Her apprentice Rae was already there, preparing what they would need; there wasn’t a moment to lose.

Sara complied immediately and Esme followed close behind, pausing only to ask Berylla if she would keep Merry for the night. Berylla readily agreed. The others slowly made their way to the dining hall; they would check on Frodo later, when the situation was not so dire. For now, the searchers were tired and hungry, and the residents in the dining hall were eagerly waiting for the Master’s return and news of the search.  

The healers worked long into the night, monitoring Frodo closely. They bathed and cleaned him and put him into fresh clothes, assessing his injuries as they went. Other than a few scratches and a dozen or so bruises, he was unharmed. Dehydration and heat stroke were the main threats, so they kept water close at hand and kept cold compresses on his forehead and under his armpits and the small of his back to help cool him.

Esmeralda and Saradoc sat in the corner of the room, out of the healer’s way, watching and waiting anxiously. Sara told Esme and Talia all that had happened on the search and of Frodo’s condition when he had been found. He told them step by step what Dodi had done to try to revive Frodo, how Frodo had responded at first but then slowly slid back into sleep as they made their way out of the woods.

“We did everything we could to keep him awake, but it was no good,” Sara said, his voice tight with emotion. “He was so still, all the way back here. I thought…” He shook his head and couldn’t finish, tears springing to his eyes but not spilling.

Esmeralda held him tight and rocked him as she would a bairn. “Shush, love. He’s here and he’ll be fine. You found him and he’s safe now.”

The healers worked on, bathing Frodo occasionally to keep him cool and gently goading water and teas down his throat, as he was not taking the drink on his own. They did not get a response from him until nearly midnight, when he woke for the briefest of moments, not even long enough to realize where he was. After that, he slept long and woke at irregular intervals. When he did wake, they fed him and gave him teas and water.

The clock read five in the morning before Talia at last sat back and sighed. “He is breathing normally,” she stated. “His eyes are responsive to candlelight and his heat fever is going down. It should break before the morning is done.”

“He will be all right?” Esme asked.

“Yes, he will be fine, if a bit tired and weak for the next few days. He should not be allowed to get up, except to use the chamber pot, and he will need help for that. He must drink plenty of water and be kept cool. He should eat light foods and bread for today, tomorrow he can eat as normal.”

“Thank you, Talia,” Esme said. She crossed the room and embraced both healers. Saradoc followed to do the same, too tired to voice the gratitude that shone from his eyes.

“Take your rest, Mistress,” Rae said to Talia, though she herself was tired. Her mistress had done most of the work throughout the long night, and so that afforded her the first rest, to Rae’s mind. “I will watch over the lad.”

Talia nodded, too exhausted to argue. “When he awakens, give him more tea and if he feels up to it, find out what happened while he was in the forest. Good night, Rae. Mistress Esmeralda, Master Saradoc, I suggest you both take the extra bed and get some sleep as well.”

Talia went into the adjoining room to take her rest, and Esme and Sara gave in to their exhaustion and lay upon the second bed so they were facing Frodo’s. They closed their eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.  

Frodo woke many hours later while Talia was still resting. Esme and Sara had dozed lightly on and off throughout the morning, waking at the slightest stir from Frodo’s bed. Rae had been dozing also when Frodo woke. He stretched with a whimper, his muscles weak and sore. “Mama?” he muttered.

Rae was on her feet immediately. She poured a fresh cup of medicinal tea and held it to his lips. “Drink up, lad. It’ll make you feel better.”

“Mama?” he asked again before accepting the tea, Rae’s hand soft on the back of his neck to support his head. He was still too groggy to fight the taste, but its bitter sting in the back of his throat did revive him somewhat. He finally opened his eyes and blinked in confusion at the apprentice.

“No, dear, it’s Rae,” she said.

“How is he?” asked Esme. She and Sara were awake now also. They came to Frodo’s other side and Esme took his hand. “Morning, love.”

“Aunt Esme?” Rae gently lowered Frodo’s head back on the pillow and Frodo forced his eyes to remain open. He turned his head to focus on Esmeralda and Saradoc and smiled at them weakly. “I saw you by the river with my parents,” he said, so weakly they had to strain to hear him. “I didn’t know you were older than Uncle Sara, Aunt Esme.”

Sara and Esme blinked, startled at this statement. Rae watched Frodo closely with concern. “You saw us with your parents?” Sara asked. “When was this?”

“Just now or, rather, before… before they… drowned. You were having a picnic, in their favorite spot under the alders, and I was off making sand smials by the riverbank. Papa said you enjoyed a good scandal, Uncle Sara. Is that true?”

Rae reached over and carefully changed the cold compresses. “Fever dream,” she said by way of explanation. “He’s still a bit warm. The fever has not quite broken yet.”

Frodo didn’t appear to hear her. He kept his eyes on his guardians, both of whom were watching him with perplexity. “You looked very pretty in your red dress, Aunt Esme. You should wear red more often.”

That was too much for Esme. She pulled Frodo into a tight embrace, upsetting the compresses, and kissed his curly head, forehead and both cheeks. “Oh Frodo, my sweet lad,” she said tearfully. “Don’t you ever run off and scare us like that again.”

“You were scared?” Frodo asked with a yawn. He closed his eyes and sank into Esme’s embrace with a sigh.

“Of course we were,” Sara put it now. “It was bad enough knowing you were gone. We felt dreadful that we had lost you, but once we learned you were in the Forest, we near got the wind knocked out of us. I don’t think I breathed proper until we went in and found you.”

“You went in?” Frodo asked incredulously. He was trying to make sense of everything through the fog in his mind. He was having difficulty deciding if this was another dream, or if the Forest itself had been a dream. Maybe they both were.

“We went in,” Sara said. “We went in and we weren’t going to leave until we found you, even if that meant we would never leave ourselves.”

“Really?” Frodo asked, his voice so small they could hardly hear him. “I wasn’t in there alone?”

“No, you weren’t. Don’t you know, Frodo, that I would do anything to keep you safe?”

“But,” Frodo stalled. He looked confused. “But, you can’t be my protector. I remember you and you already know me.”

“Excuse me, Master,” Rae interjected. Frodo’s voice was gradually becoming weaker and more worn. “Frodo must be allowed to rest and we still need to find out what happened to him while he was in the Forest. I must insist, Mistress, that you lay him down.”

Esme complied with the apprentice’s wishes, but clasped Frodo’s hand between hers, not willing to let go completely. Sara placed a gentle hand on Frodo’s knee, feeling much the same as his wife.

Rae reapplied the compresses and went about applying more of the bruise cream to Frodo’s injuries. “Now, Master Frodo,” she said as she worked, “what do you remember about the Old Forest? My mistress and I can’t help you if we don’t know what happened to you.”

Frodo yawned widely and shrugged. “Not much really,” he said softly. “I walked a lot. I slept a lot. I had a lot of bad or strange dreams. I ate some bad fruit. It made me dizzy and then my dreams were scary for a while. Then they weren’t.”

“How long ago did you eat this bad fruit?” Rae asked. “What did it look and taste like?”

“Like cherries, but bigger and darker in color, and they were high on a tree. The one I tried was very bitter so I spat it back out,” Frodo answered. “I don’t remember when. All the days are a blur. The scary dreams are gone now though.”

Rae allowed Frodo to sleep then, and went to awaken her mistress and tell her all she had learned.

“Nightshade,” Talia surmised of the poisonous fruit Frodo had eaten. “Toxic, but not deadly, unless taken in large amounts. The effects wear off rather quickly, within a day or two. I would guess that it has been at least this long, since his ‘bad’ dreams have stopped. Still, it would do to keep a closer eye on him for the rest of today.”

Talia relieved Rae of her duty then and urged Esme and Sara to get out of the room for a bit. She ordered some food to be brought in for herself and Rae before ushering Esme and Sara from the room. They looked long upon Frodo’s sleeping form before closing the door behind them. They had been lucky and they knew it. If it hadn’t been for old Bombadil, they likely would never have found Frodo or found him much too late. They were nearly too late as it was. 

Esme and Sara first went to Merimac’s to check on their son. Merry has happily playing with Berilac when they entered the apartment but when he saw his parents, he bounced up and down where he sat and lifted his arms. Sara picked him up and they sat on the settee as Berylla brought them tea. “How is Frodo?”

“Confused and tired, but well,” Esme answered. “The worst of it is over. He’s sleeping again.”

“Why did he go into the Forest?” Mac asked. “Was it really because of what Gil had said to him?”

Sara shook his head, and tried not to get distracted when Merry started playing with the buttons on his waistcoat. “We didn’t have the time to ask. It can wait until he is feeling better. We are going to have to speak long and plain with Frodo. He has to learn that when something is bothering him, he is to come to us. I don’t know why he doesn’t.”

“We’ll watch Merry as long as you need us to,” Berylla offered. “You both need to eat and get some proper rest. Go freshen up, I’ll order food to be brought to your apartment in a few hour’s time.”

“Thank you, Berylla,” Esme said, yawning where she sat. “We’ll come for Merry after we are rested. I’m sure Frodo will want to see him, and I know Merry has missed him.”  

It was not until the next day that Frodo felt well enough to answer Sara and Esme’s questions about his reasoning for entering the Forest. He was reluctant to speak at first, and even after much goading and reassuring, he still held back in answering. It was not until Sara made it plain that they would remain in the room until Frodo answered their questions that Frodo finally spoke.

“I wanted to prove something to myself,” Frodo said timidly, as Esme wiped his brow with a damp cloth. “I’m always scared of things. I’m scared of everything. I wanted everyone to see that I could be brave. That’s why I went in. But I was still scared. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be brave, Frodo,” Esme said. “Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is ask for help when you know you need it, and there is nothing wrong with being afraid of things. Everyone is afraid of something.”

“We were afraid of losing you,” Sara said, taking Frodo’s hand in his. “We were afraid we failed you in some way, that we made you feel you could not confide in us and that’s why you left. We were afraid we’d never see you again and that we had failed your parents by not keeping you safe.”

“Oh,” was Frodo’s response. He had never thought of that before.

“You do know you can tell us anything and come to us with your concerns, don’t you?” Saradoc asked, looking at Frodo intently. “There is nothing you cannot tell us, there is nothing we won’t help you with.”

Frodo looked at them solemnly. “You’ve told me.”

“But you believe it, right?” Esme said, putting down the compress to comb back Frodo’s errant curls with her fingers. “You don’t have to hide things from us, Frodo. You can tell us. That’s why we’re here. To help you and take care of you, to talk about how you’re feeling about things and try to make those things more bearable for you.”

“I know. I just thought I was being such a burden already,” Frodo muttered. “You’re always worrying about me. I thought if I weren’t so afraid, you wouldn’t have to worry all the time.”

“You have never been a burden to us, Frodo,” Sara said. “Never. If we worry about you, it is only because we care so much. You could be the mightiest warrior in all the lands, and we’d still worry about you. We worry just as much about Merry as well. It’s part of being a parent, and while we may not be your parents, you are every bit a joy to us as Merry is. There is nothing you can do to make us not love you.”

“Really?” Frodo asked uncertainly.

“Really,” Esme said. “We want you to come to us with all your worries, no matter how many times they plague you. Sometimes, just telling someone is enough to make the worries go away.”

“But, I worry about everything.”

“Such as?” Sara prompted.

Frodo looked between them both, looked at Merry asleep in his mother’s arms. Before he was aware that he was speaking, he was spilling out all the questions that had ever tormented him. “What if Merry has to grow up without parents? What if something happens to you both? Will Merry and me be separated? What will happen to me? What if you just decide to get rid of me? Where will I go? What if I’m the one that causes all the bad luck?”

Esme and Sara exchanged looks. That was a bit more than they had expected to hear, but they would not fail Frodo now. Sara sat forward and considered the questions gravely before answering. “Well, if something were to happen to Esme and me, you and Merry would go and stay with Mac and Berylla. It’s all arranged in our wills, and Mac and Berylla have agreed to it. You and Merry won’t be separated.”

Frodo absorbed this gradually. He hadn’t thought of the fact that Esme and Saradoc had already taken these things into account. He hadn’t expected them to have requested that, no matter what happens, he and Merry were to remain together. So he wasn’t the only one to worry about such things, and if Esme and Sara were frightened about these things, they were prepared also.

“So, if Merry and I aren’t to be separated, does that mean that you won’t send me away either?”

“Never,” Esme said. She bent down and kissed his forehead before continuing. “And there is no way that you are to blame for what happened to your parents. Sometimes, things happen that our beyond our control, and we don’t know why they happen. You are not bad luck, Frodo. Saradoc and I were never luckier than the day you came to live with us. We had come to think that we would never have a child, and then we had you, and not much longer after that, we had Merry. We’re more blessed now that we could ever have hoped to be, and you’re a big part of that.”

Frodo smiled at her and Sara, a feeling of relief rushing through him, taking away his worries and leaving him blissfully warm. He wasn’t bad luck after all. Frodo slept then, peacefully and with a small smile on his face as he held onto Sara’s hand.

To be continued…