Chapter Ten: Time With An Old Friend

Sam returned to the smial and was greeted by the delicious aroma of mushrooms. He entered the dining room just as Frodo emerged from the kitchen, carrying a plate with a large omelette on it.

"Just in time, ammelda!" the elder hobbit said cheerfully with a wide smile.

Sam took the plate from him and set it down at Frodo’s place. The elder hobbit sighed just a little, then turned back to get the other plate. He was stopped when Sam took his hands, kissed the space where the missing finger had been, then held him tightly. Frodo returned the embrace, leaning his head against his brother’s shoulder.

"What am I going to do with you, Frodo Baggins?" Sam asked.

"Hopefully love me and put up with me as you always have," Frodo answered. "And let me serve you once in a while."

"I will always love you. It was Stinker I put up with."

"Thank Iluvatar for that."

"But you have to let me take care of you, meldanya."

"And you, ammelda, have to let me take care of you. I know how hard that is for you to accept, to take any recompense for all the great good and love you have lavished on me all this many decades, but can’t you see that I want, I need to thank you in some way?"

"And can’t you see that I need no thanks? But knowing how terribly stubborn you are, I guess we are just going to have to keep arguing about it, seeing that neither of us can convince the other."

Frodo looked up into his brother’s eyes and drowned in all that love there, then he smiled mischievously. "There is another way, of course. You could give in."

Sam laughed and both hearts danced to see the other so happy. "It’ll snow in Mordor before that happens."

"Well, I’m not going to give in either."

Frodo kissed his brother’s head, then let go and moved back toward the kitchen. Sam almost forcibly guided him to his chair before he could take more than a step. "You’ve done enough today, meldanya," he said with a smile.

Sam returned with his own plate and poured tea for the two of them. They shared the silent prayer before meals and then ate heartily. Sam came out of the kitchen after he had cleaned the dishes to see Frodo waiting at the door with a picnic basket.

"I prepared it while I was waiting for you this morning," the elder hobbit explained. "I want to show you more of the island. Are you up for a long vantea, walk?"

The younger smiled. "I better be because if I let you out of my sight, you are going to make every meal for the next week!"

Frodo’s eyes twinkled. "Anye hilya! Follow me!"

Sam took the basket from his brother and they walked far and wide before stopping. "This is my favorite laire, my favorite meadow. It’s a good hike from home and there’s a lovely ambo, hill, not far either that’s very good for running down. You can see very far from the top."

They sat down and Frodo allowed himself to be served. They had a very pleasant meal and when all was put back, the elder hobbit patted the ground beside him and they laid out on their stomachs for another lesson in Quenya. Frodo wrote everything out as he spoke.

"To say something in the past, you use ‘ne’ if the word ends in ‘a’, ‘r’, ‘m’ or ‘n’. Harya is have, haryane is had. Cen is see, cenne is saw. If it ends in another consonant, then you put a ‘n’ before the last consonant. Mat is eat, mante is ate. But the exception to that is if the word ends in ‘p’, then there’s no ‘n’ but a ‘m’. Cap is jump. Campe is jumped. And if it ends in a ‘l’..."

Sam groaned. "Why can’t they just have one rule for all the letters!"

Frodo laughed. "I said the same thing when I was learning. Colemaine, elwennya. Patience, my heart. It’s not so bad once you learn it. You have a gift for languages. You learned to read and write Westron and you took easily enough to Sindarin. You’ll be speaking Quenya in no time. Now as I was saying, if a word ends in ‘l’, you add ‘le’. Mel is love, melle is loved."

"To say something in the future, you add ‘uva’ at the end, unless the word ends in an ‘a’, then you drop the ‘a’ before adding ‘uva’. Arca is pray, arcuva is will pray. Actually, that may not be the best example, since there are other words for pray too, but do you get the idea, my Sam?"

"What’s the word of ‘I’?"

"Ni."

"Then ni arucva I understand this all."

Frodo laughed. "Ni arcane, I prayed, more than you know. But it is a vanima lambe, a beautiful language once you learn it.

"Now, if you want to add ‘ly’ to the end of a word ending in ‘a’, it’s ‘ve’. Linta is swift, lintave is swiftly.

"If you want something is best of something, you add ‘an’ to the beginning of the word unless the word starts with a ‘l’, ‘s’ ‘r’ or ‘m’ then you add that letter instead of the ‘n’. Anvanima is fairest. It’s also where ammelda comes from.

"If you want speak about doing something, you add ‘e’ to the end. Tec is write, tece is to write."

"Unless..." Sam began.

Frodo smiled. "See you are catching on already, ammelda! There usually is an unless, in this case, it’s if the word ends in a ‘a’ then you don’t add the ‘e’ and leave it unchanged.

"Now to mean the negative of something, it’s ‘um’ at the beginning of the word for the present. Umin is I am not, ‘ume’ is the past, umen is I was not and ‘uva’ is for the future, uvan is I will not be.

Clouds suddenly rolled across the sun causing Frodo to look up. He quickly closed the lesson book and stashed at the bottom of the basket. "We’ll have to get back. I should have been paying more attention to the weather. See that lumbo, that dark towering cloud? We don’t get many raumor, storms, here as bad as this one looks like it could be, but they do come sometime."

He held out his hand as a fine rain began to fall. "This miste is just the beginning. We’re going to have make a run for it."

"All the way back?"

"There is a cambo, a cave, nearby, but I got caught in that last time it rained this bad and it nearly flooded. I don’t want to risk that again. We’re just going to have to get through it I think and pray we can get home before it’s too terrible."

They ran as quickly as they could. The picnic basket banged against Sam’s legs and he knew he was going to have some very pretty bruises later. It began to pour before they got home and they were a completely soaked mess by the time they got home. Thunder roared overhead as Frodo slammed the door behind him. They trailed muddy footprints over the tile floor until they reached the bathroom and rinsed off their feet. Then Frodo wet a towel to begin to clean up the mess. Sam threw out what was left in the picnic basket but for the lesson book which he was grateful to see was only a little damp, hardly touched at all. Then he took the towel from his brother and started cleaning up their mess himself.

"You have to let me do something, Sam," Frodo said. "I can’t abide all this waiting on me hand and foot. I’m not ill anymore like I was."

Sam gave his brother a look of tender exasperation. "I’ve been taking care of you since I was nine, Iorhaelnya, and I’m still going to be doing it when I’m 109 so you better just get used to it."

"But you don’t have to do that anymore. I think we should be doing it more equally. I should be taking care of you to thank you for all you’ve ever done for me."

Sam sneezed. "It’s just not right, meldanya."

Frodo took out a damp handkerchief from his breeches pocket and gave it to his guardian "Blow," he said. "I’m telling you one thing, right now, Samwise Gamgee, friend of friends, most stubborn and beloved of all hobbits, that if you get a cold, I will be taking care of you every moment and I won’t let you have a word to say about it."

Sam obediently blew. "And I’m going to take care of you whether you get sick or not, Frodo Baggins, dearest and most stubborn of all hobbits, elves, dwarves and men!"

Frodo laughed, hugged his brother and kissed his head. "Oh, ammelda, I have missed you so. Even know I still can’t realize you are actually with me again."

Sam returned the tight embrace. "And I’m never going to leave you again. Ever."

"I’m still going to argue, though."

Sam kissed his head. "You wouldn’t be my Frodo if you didn’t. But you’re going to keep losing too."

Frodo giggled. Sam squeezed him, then let him go. "Now get out of your soaking clothes, meldanya, get your nap in and when you’re up, I’ll have a fire going and water heated for a good cup of tea."

"I’m not going to rest until you get out of your soaking clothes and I take care of those bruises on your poor legs. I have just the balm for them."

Sam sighed and Frodo laughed. The younger hobbit suffered to be taken care of, then tucked his brother in for his nap, kissed his forehead and retired to the parlor to study. When Frodo rose from sleep, they sat before the fire and enjoyed the tea and company. Dinner passed just as pleasantly.

"Another masterpiece of a meal by S. Gamgee," Frodo said at the end as he wiped his mouth. "Hantanyel."

Sam smiled. "Nan alassea nurolya."

Frodo threw his head back and laughed. "So you have found out my secret! I was wondering when you would. Well, I must say I am rather proud of my favorite student for doing some independent study like that. You are now officially a quenda, someone who speaks Quenya. Soon you’ll be turning into an Elf! Pereldar I should call you, half-Elven."

"Then I should be calling you the same thing. That goes much more for you than me. Always did."

The storm did not lessen in strength throughout the night. During it, Sam moaned in his sleep, trapped in a dream and frightened by the howling wind. Frodo woke and held him tighter. "Quilde, melmenya. Hush, my love," he comforted. "It’s all right. It’s just the raumo and the su, just the noise of a storm and the wind. Quilde."

When Sam continued to be agitated, Frodo began to sing softly, mixing Quenya and Westorn.

"Fume sin, ar ista ta melinyel.

Let aside your cares.

Ni varuya elye.

"Fume sin ar ista ta meliynel

Let no darkness touch you.

Ni tiruva elye.

"Fume sin ar ista ta meliynel

Let your worries fade away

Uvan autayel.

"Fume sin ar ista ta meliynel

Let no pain plague you.

Ni etelehtuva elye.

"Fume sin ar ista ta meliynel

Let no terror frighten you.

Ni nauva illume as elye.

"Fume sin ar ista ta meliynel."

When Frodo saw that Sam had fallen back to sleep, he kissed his brother’s brow softly and then returned to sleep himself. Neither were troubled any further by the wind or the storm.

A/N: Frodo’s song is a translation of my "Sleep Now And Know That I Love You" lullaby. I hope I did it right, I think I did, but I’m still learning!