AUTHOR: Dreamflower
RATING: G
CATEGORY: General
SUMMARY : On the Quest, Frodo and Merry tell Gimli a family story…
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The elements for the Challenge this month were a mother and/or a sibling; in addition I had to include: a surly cow, Buckland, Paladin and Gimli.
DISCLAIMER: Middle-earth and all its peoples belong to the Tolkien Estate. I own none of them. Some of them, however, seem to own me.

EARLY IN THE MORNING

Gimli glanced up as Frodo approached. Aragorn had them taking the watch in pairs now. He thought that they would be in danger from both sides of the River. In a short while they would awaken Boromir and Merry for their watch.

Frodo came over and stood next to the Dwarf. “It’s all as quiet as can be. I hope that Aragorn is wrong about the danger.”

Gimli shrugged. “It’s as well to listen to what he says. He’s a Ranger, after all. But somehow I feel in my bones that the danger will lie much further along the Anduin. That the danger is there is not in doubt.”

Frodo sighed. “I know,” he said sadly. “I wish it were otherwise. I already miss Lothlórien.” He turned his glance over to where the other hobbits were sleeping; Sam and Merry had Pippin between them. As he watched, Merry stirred, and moving carefully, managed to extricate himself without waking the others. He got up slowly, cast a wry smile at Frodo and Gimli, and vanished briefly behind a tree. After a moment, he emerged, and moved silently to stand behind the other two.

“It’s not quite time for your watch yet, Merry,” Frodo said.

“You would do better to get as much rest as you can, young hobbit,” added Gimli.

Merry shrugged. “When I’m up, I’m up, Frodo. You know that--when it’s this close to time for me to be awake, I’d never get back to sleep.”

Frodo gave his cousin a fond grin. “You and Aunt Esme! You get that from your Took side, you know.”

“Well, I get it from Mum, anyway, cousin, and definitely *not* Da. And it’s not as though I’m like Pippin.”

“Well, I should *hope* not!” said Frodo. “Sometimes I think it’s amazing that Pippin ever sleeps at all. Remember that day we were all going to walk to Tuckborough from Bag End? I think he’d prowled around Bag End all night long.”

Gimli shook his head, amused. “I *have* noticed that Pippin does often seem to have an excess of energy.”

Frodo snorted indelicately, and Merry put his hand to his mouth to silence his own bark of laughter. The two hobbits cast a guilty look at the sleepers--but it did not appear they had awakened anyone.

“Do you remember the story your father tells on your mother and Paladin?” Frodo chuckled.

“When Mum was courting Da?” asked Merry, with a slight smile.

“Yes--that one.” Frodo turned to Gimli, “you see, Gimli among hobbits it’s the older of the couple who’s considered to be doing the courting, male or female. The vast majority of the time, it’s the lad who’s older, but sometimes it’s the lass. Aunt Esme is four years older than Uncle Sara, so she’s the one who did the courting.”

Gimli nodded. “Among my people, it is the female who does the courting, whatever the age--there are so few, they have their pick.”

“Well, Aunt Esme had put her mind on Saradoc Brandybuck before he was anywhere near of age. In fact it was shortly before *she* came of age. There had always been a lot of visits between the Tooks and Brandybucks, so she’d grown up knowing Uncle Sara. The year she was thirty-two, she decided that it was as well to stake her claim--and she had the perfect excuse for a visit to Buckland: me.”

“She came, accompanied by Uncle Paladin, supposedly to be with her friend Primula when she had her baby.” Merry said, “I gathered her mother had not much wanted her to visit but her father thought it would be perfectly proper if she had her older brother with her.”

“Normally,” Frodo took up the story, “her older sisters would have come, as they were my mother’s closest friends, but they could not at the time, as Cousin Peridot was also expecting, and Primrose needed to be with *her*.”

Frodo was silent for a moment, remembering his mother, and then before Merry could have a chance to become alarmed, continued. “At any rate, it was the first time since Paladin had come of age that his parents had put him in charge of his younger sister, and he was taking it very seriously. Paladin stuck to her like a burr, whenever she was out and about, and making certain that she never had the chance to be alone with Uncle Sara.”

“Da thought it very amusing.” Merry chuckled.

“They’d been there a few days, and Aunt Esme was beginning to get rather peeved at her brother’s constant attendance. Now, according to her, she woke up very early because that was what she was used to on the farm, and she decided to get dressed and go out without saying anything to anyone. Uncle Sara says it was probably because she had not slept to begin with!”

Merry interrupted, “and Uncle Paladin says it was just to spite him! But he woke up early as well, and getting up, he looked out the guest room window and spotted his sister outside ’at the crack of dawn’ as he put it, walking towards the barns.”

Now Frodo took up the tale. “Of course, he immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was sneaking out to meet Saradoc! He threw his clothes on, and dashed out of the Hall--didn’t even bother to pass through the kitchens.”

Suddenly Merry and Frodo exchanged a grin, and put their hands to their mouths to stifle their laughter.

“So,” continued Frodo “Paladin rushed over to the barn, and he heard his sister crooning ‘Oh, now! Aren’t you sweet? Come here and let’s have a cuddle.’ So he went in, all filled with fury, and he didn’t see her at first. Then he realized the voice was coming from a stall where one of the Hall‘s dairy cows was kept. ”

Merry, knowing what was coming, bit his lip and rolled his eyes.

“Paladin bursts into the stall, only to see his sister sitting in the hay with a tabby cat on her lap. But before he can say anything, he slipped on--” Frodo snickered, “--a bit of manure and reached out to steady himself from falling, he grabbed at the cow. The cow, rather surly anyway, at the rude interruption, brought one of her forefeet down right on top of Paladin’s foot!”

Gimli winced. “I take it he was barefoot?”

Merry and Frodo goggled at the Dwarf, seemingly surprised that he even needed to ask.

“Of course,” Frodo replied. “His foot was broken. They ended up having to extend their visit to Buckland by a few weeks. I came along a few days later, but for Aunt Esme the important thing was, that with Paladin laid up, she had plenty of time to come to an understanding with Uncle Sara.”

Merry giggled. “The funny thing is, Da was sound asleep the whole time! He was never an early riser. In fact he said, fond as he was of Mum, he would never be out in the barn keeping a tryst at that hour!”

Gimli enjoyed a stifled laugh, and then said, “Speaking of the hour, Merry, I think it is time your cousin and I get some sleep, and we need to waken Boromir to share your watch.”

The two hobbits nodded, and Merry gave Frodo’s arm a squeeze. “Get some rest, Frodo.”

He saw Gimli go over and rouse Boromir, and watched as Frodo carefully slipped next to Pippin and Sam. Then he turned his eyes upon the mist-shrouded River to keep his watch.