7. A Fishing Expedition

After tea, Ferdi kissed Nell and then put his lips close to her protruding belly. 'So, little one,' he said. 'And when are we to be greeting you, I'd like to know?' He put an ear to the spot and nodded solemnly while the children giggled.

'Should he tell you, be sure to pass on the news,' Pimpernel said. 'I am heartily weary of the waiting.'

'I never pass on gossip,' he said severely, shaking his head at her, 'but if he should tell me he's ready to come out, you'll be the first to know.'

'Somehow, I believe you have the right of it,' Pimpernel sighed, and he patted her belly gently.

'You be good for your mum, now,' he said, and rising, added, 'Nell, my own, would it be all right if I take young Rudi out for an hour or three this afternoon? We thought we'd seek for birds' nests, to see how Mistress Spring is coming along.'

'When would you be back?' Pimpernel asked, holding out a hand.

He took it and squeezed gently. 'Well before late supper,' he replied. 'I don't fancy stumbling about in the dark. Might end up with a footful of egg, should we be observing the ground-nesting birds at the time.'

Rudi made a sound of disgust, and his mother laughed. 'Very well,' Pimpernel said. 'The babe has shown no signs of arriving in the next hour or three, so take yourselves off.'

It was a misty day, after the previous days' hard rains, the Sun hiding her face behind heavy clouds as the twain tramped along. They started in the field, walked to the skirts of the little wood, quietly marked several nests as they walked. The woods opened up as they began to climb.

Partway up a hill, they were hailed by a panting, mud-covered youth. 'Help!' he cried. 'Please, help!' Ferdi caught him as he collapsed.

'What is it?' he snapped, recognising Palangrim Took, one of the worst troublemakers in the Smials. 'Is this some kind of prank? Get the whole Smials out on a bogus search, whilst you and your fellows sit dry and snug by the fire and chuckle over your tea?'

'No!' the lad gasped. 'No, we were fishing...'

'Fishing,' Ferdi said sceptically. 'In this? Stream's running too fast for that, 'tis much too dangerous.' The Tuckbourn, chuckling ankle-deep in the summer months, was a raging torrent in the spring freshet, dangerously swift, and deep enough to close over the head of the tallest hobbit, even were he able to keep his feet in the current.

'I know,' Palan said desperately, clutching at the grown-up's arm. 'Stream cut under the bank, the trail fell in, it washed away...' The rest of his words were washed away in bitter sobbing.

'Someone's in the stream?' Ferdi said, fear clenching his guts. Still sobbing, the lad nodded.

'Who?' he snapped.

'My brother, Faramir, and Odobard,' Palan said, finding his voice. 'Hildibald had to stay home, his parents were punishing him for going off to the mine.'

'Faramir!' Ferdibrand exclaimed. It was horror enough to lose three youngsters in one terrible happening, but to have one of them the only son of the Thain... 'Where?'

'The bluff,' Palan sobbed. Ferdi nodded, he knew the spot. The best fishing hole near the Smials was on the other side of a large hill, reached by a trail that wound up the hill, along a bluff overlooking the stream, and down again.

'Rudi,' he said now. 'Run for help. Ropes, for starters, and anybody that knows how to swim.' There were a few Brandybucks visiting. Pippin knew how to swim as well, and he was Faramir's father in the bargain, though Ferdi didn't know what he could do in the raging torrent, and with his lungs the way they were. 'Tell the fathers of the lads, as well.' Rudi nodded and took off at a run. He had a good hour before he'd reach the Smials, Ferdi calculated.

Turning to Palan, he said, 'Get up. Take me to where they fell.' The bodies would wash up well downstream, of course, but he needed to know the starting point for the search.

They slipped and slid up the muddy trail to the bluff, Palan pulling Ferdi to a stop just as they reached the top. Ferdi threw himself down in the mud, peering over the edge. He could see the stream below, churning white, singing a song of rage and triumph... but what was that, on the edge of the stream?

'Farry!' he shouted. 'Odo! Adel!' There were only two figures there, bedraggled and mud-covered, impossible to distinguish who they were, clinging desperately to some tree roots. A white face looked up, and Ferdi felt the clench of fear ease almost imperceptibly. Faramir had not drowned! ...not yet, anyhow.

'Help!' Faramir cried. 'I don't know how long we can hold...' A little more of the bank crumbled into the stream, and he paid more heed to his handhold, shifting his grip to more secure-seeming roots. Ferdi reached down, as far as he dared, but could not reach the lads.

'Hold on!' he shouted. 'I'm coming down to you!'

'No!' Faramir cried. The other lad looked up silently, and Palan sobbed his brother's name.

Ferdi found a fallen branch, blown down in a recent storm, not yet cleared away by the foresters. He tested it, and it seemed sound enough, not rotten. He extended it over the bank, down towards the young hobbits. 'Grab hold!' he shouted.

Faramir shook his head. 'Can't!' he panted. 'It's all I can do to hold on, here.' The other young hobbit didn't answer, just clung grimly to his own tree roots.

Ferdi urged them, but neither moved to grab at the branch. Finally, in frustration, he sat back on his heels. From the look of the bank, they wouldn't be safe there all that much longer. 'Here,' he said suddenly to Palangrim, indicating the branch. 'Take hold. We'll use it like a rope. I'll climb down as you steady it.'

The lad nodded. He was nearly a tween, and big and strong for his age. 'I could go,' he said bravely. 'You could hold the branch.'

'No,' Ferdi shook his head. 'I know how to swim, a little. I doubt that you do.' He'd had to learn, on Pippin's insistence, as part of his duties in working for the Thain. A distasteful chore, but coming in handy now, it seemed.

Palan nodded again, bracing himself as best he could in the mud, grasping the branch firmly. Ferdi took hold, turned feet-first to the stream, started to climb down the branch. Just like tree-climbing, he told himself, firmly ignoring the roar of the ravening stream. Easy as pie.

Reaching the lads, he took hold of the nearest, but unaccountably the lad resisted him, holding tighter to the sturdy roots sticking out of the clay. 'Come now,' he said through his teeth. 'You've got to climb.' He saw now that the mud-smeared face belonged to Odobard. Palangrim's brother must have been the one washed away.

'Farry,' he said, but the Thain's son shook his head.

'Take Odo up first,' Faramir answered. 'I have a good grip, here.' In fact, his roots were thicker than Odo's, and Ferdi nodded. He grabbed hold of a thick root between the boys with one hand, loosening and removing his belt with the other. He passed the belt around the thickest of the roots, then around Faramir, fumbling the buckle closed with one hand. Having broken an arm in the past, having to manage one-handed while it healed, certainly made things easier at the moment...

'That'll keep you, for the nonce,' he said, and turned to Odo again. 'Come, Odo,' he said. 'Time to climb out of here. You'll be late for supper.' He gently pried one of the lad's hands free of the roots, placing it firmly on the branch. 'Come, Odo,' he said again, loosing his own hold of the branch to grab at roots. 'Climb up. You're keeping Farry waiting; he's next, you know.'

Odobard swallowed hard. His hand gripped the branch more tightly, then his other hand loosed the roots. He did not look at Ferdibrand, but the adult hobbit squeezed him on the shoulder with his free hand. 'That's it,' he said encouragingly. 'Just like climbing a tree. Off you go.' Odo began to climb, slow but sure, as Palan steadied the branch.

'We're nearly home,' Ferdi said conversationally to Faramir. 'What d'you suppose we'll be having for supper?'

'Water rations for me,' Faramir said glumly.

Ferdi laughed. 'Could be worse,' he said. 'Water from a mug sounds a lot more inviting than water from the stream, at the moment.'

'You have the right of it,' Faramir said, watching Odo's slow climb. He was nearly to the top, and Palan had loosed one hand from the branch, reaching it out to Odobard, to help him up onto more stable ground.

'I'm glad my Nell cannot see me now,' Ferdi said cheerily. 'She'd have the babe out of sheer consternation, not to mention I would never live it down...' Just then, more of the bank crumbled away beneath him, throwing his weight fully upon the tree roots to which he clung... roots that did not hold his weight, but gave way...

Faramir cried out in horror as the stream claimed its second hobbit of the day, closing over Ferdi's head and sweeping him away. A moment later, there was no sign that he'd been there at all, save his belt, buckling the son of the Thain securely to a sturdy root above the raging waters.