IN PERFECT HARMONY

A/N - The Challenge for 33 was to write a story about a Coming-of-Age and the elements I had to include were a strange contraption, a lace-up bodice, and a pouch full of money.

Many thanks to Dreamflower for all of her ideas for this story as well as her quick beta of this chapter, Marigold for her beta read, and to SlightlyTookish for letting me borrow an element from her AU that will appear later in the story.

CHAPTER TWO

In the flashback sequence, Pippin is 13, Diamond is 8, Hale is 14, and Helinand is 12 (8, 5, 8 1/2, and 7 1/2 in Man years).

4 Blotmath, S.R. 1426

Pippin had been on many long journeys before, including in foreign lands where each step he took was fraught with a fear more powerful than any he had ever felt in the Shire. But never had he been filled with as much fear on a journey as he was now.

The Winter Sickness. The very name sent shivers down his spine, shivers totally unrelated to the bitter cold and swirling winds around him. He had told Estella that he didn’t care if he caught a chill or the Winter Sickness itself, he had to be with Diamond. It was the only truth that Pippin knew as he rushed mile after mile to be with her.

If anything happened to her …

No, Pippin could not bear to think of such things. He would not *allow* himself to. Diamond was a strong, sturdy lass. She did not have the same breathing troubles that Pippin had been plagued with most of his life. She would be fine. It was silly of him to fret so.

But, no, it was not silly of him. Bandigard North-Took had sent Tarry Saddler to Pippin. And Bandigard North-Took was not a hobbit known for overreacting. No, if Diamond’s father had sent his messenger with an urgent message to fetch Pippin in the middle of such bitter weather, then Diamond’s condition must be serious.

Poor Tarry … he must be chilled to the bone, being sent so far in weather such as this. As if to emphasise this point, the grey-haired messenger began coughing at that very moment.

Pippin sighed deeply with frustration. Why did Long Cleeve have to be so far away? Even riding his pony as swiftly as he had, it had been a three-day journey. Now that they were just a few hours away, Pippin was even more anxious to reach Diamond.

He clicked his tongue to his bay pony. “Come on, Nibbles. Please go faster. Fly like the wind.” The very image of his pony running so swiftly brought to mind a horse he dearly wished were able to carry him to his Diamond’s side right now. But Shadowfax had departed with Gandalf and was across the Sea.

Gandalf … Pippin missed him sorely. What would he think to see Pippin now, betrothed to be married and rushing to be at the side of his intended during a grave illness? Perhaps he would have been able to help make Diamond well. Or even better, the healing hands of the King, Aragorn. As it was, they would have to rely upon the abilities of Mistress Tulipa. She was an able healer, but still…

Pippin leant forward in his saddle to coax more speed out of Nibbles. Diamond simply had to get better. He had known her almost his entire life, from the time she was a baby, and she had steadily grown in importance to him until now … life would be unbearable without her.

As the miles passed and the wind blew steadily colder, Pippin’s thoughts were filled with memories of Diamond; there were so many of them, from the time Pippin was a young lad.

Of course, Diamond was just another baby at first, nothing of much interest to a young lad. When his family would visit the North-Tooks, Pippin had been far more interested in playing with Diamond’s older brothers, Halinard (who usually was called “Hale”), who was a year older than Pippin, and Helinand, who was a year younger than Pippin. But as he got older, Diamond began following her older brothers around and would join in their games. She wasn’t like most lasses, afraid to get her dress soiled or to climb a tree. Pippin could still recall the first time she had joined them. That was when he had first noticed that she was different from other lasses.

The Sun shone brightly as Diamond ran down the path that wound through one of the gardens at her home in North Cleeve. ”Where are you going?” the eight year-old lass shouted after her brothers and cousin.

“We’re going down to that old elm tree to show Pippin the new swing Father made for us!” fourteen year-old Hale shouted back.

At the mention of the swing, Diamond’s eyes lit up. “Wait for me! I’m coming, too!” she cried with glee. Her long dark brown curls bounced around her as she ran down the path as quickly as her little legs would carry her, so light on her feet that it seemed she was barely touching the ground.

“All right, you may come along, Diamond. But I don’t want to hear you complain about your legs getting tired or about how hot it is,” said Helinand, smiling at his little sister’s infectious excitement.

“I won’t,” she promised. Diamond skipped ahead of Helinand and Pippin and began to sing happily a made-up song in a sweet, clear voice that sounded to Pippin like tiny silver bells.

Pippin turned to Helinand and raised an eyebrow questioningly. He wanted to enjoy spending time with his distant lad cousins whom he rarely got to see.

“It will be all right, Pip. Diamond might be too little to climb the tree, but she’ll be happy just sitting below it on the swing watching us climb. You’ll see.”

Pippin sighed in resignation and continued down the path. “Come along, Dickon.” The black and white sheepdog, a birthday present from Cousin Bilbo a couple of years before who went wherever Pippin went, trotted happily by Pippin’s side, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

It’s not that Pippin objected to playing with lasses, after all, he had three sisters whom he played with all the time. But they were all older than him and knew how to climb trees or play grown-up lad and lass games like marbles, find-the-hobbit, and archery. Diamond wasn’t much older than a faunt, and most lasses, especially her age, would start to complain when their dresses got soiled or when it got too hot.

Ah, well. Helinand said it would be all right. From farther ahead, Pippin heard the unmistakable silvery laughter of the little lass and watched as she paused to stick some flowers in her hair. He chuckled quietly to himself, ready to give her a chance.

Much to Pippin’s surprise, Diamond did not complain that she was tired or about the heat the whole way down to the elm tree. Hale and Helinand were right – Uncle Bandigard had made them a very nice swing. The seat was made of oak so that it would be really strong and the ropes it hung from were extra thick so there would be no chance of it breaking while a little hobbit was swinging high up in the air from it.

All four of the children took turns on the swing, trying to see who could go the highest, Diamond laughing in a laugh that reminded Pippin of music. When it was Pippin’s turn on the swing, he found it a lot of fun to feel the wind on his face as he swung higher and higher into the air. But in the end, Hale went the highest, although they all had just as much fun.

Then it was time for the lads to do one of Pippin’s favourite activities – climbing a tree.

As the three lads began to climb the great tree, Diamond began to play with Dickon underneath its branches. When he was half-way up the tree, Pippin heard Diamond begin to sing again and paused to look at his little cousin and his dog. It was mesmerising. The way they moved back and forth in play, Diamond so light on her feet in her bright yellow dress and buttercups in her sunlit hair, and Dickon dashing in quick circles around her, it reminded Pippin of a sprightly dance. She looked more like a faerie than a little lass.

“Come on, Pip!” urged Hale from beneath him. Pippin shook his head to bring himself back to his senses and began to climb again. When all three lads were safely up in the branches of the tall tree, they began to discuss what to play first.

“Let’s play find-the-hobbit!” suggested Hale.

Helinand and Pippin grinned widely at him and nodded.

“Helinand, you’re the youngest, so you count first,” Hale said. Being the oldest, he usually took charge of their little group when they played, but not in a bossy sort of way.

“But I’ll always be the youngest! I always have to count first!” he cried from the branch he was standing on.

Pippin laughed at his poor cousin’s plight. With three older sisters of his own, he knew full well just how unfair it could be at times being the youngest. “That’s all right, Helinand. I’ll count first this time.”

Helinand flashed a wide, toothy smile at Pippin in appreciation – and then darted higher up the tree to hide.

It was worth it to have to count first in order to see Helinand so happy. Pippin turned toward the middle of the tree and leant his head on its trunk while he closed his eyes and counted, both arms wrapped carefully around the tree.

When he reached one hundred, he shouted, “Ready or not, here I come!” and began searching for them. First he looked below him to make sure Hale and Helinand had not tried to trick him by going to a lower branch, but they were not there. Nor had they cheated by climbing out of the tree. The only ones on the ground were Dickon and Diamond, still dancing about and singing merrily. So then Pippin lifted his head up and looked above him, squinting in the bright sunlight as he tried to look through the elm’s many branches.

At last he saw what he was looking for – a bare foot with dark brown curls on it poking out from a branch thick with green leaves just three feet above him. Pippin grinned quietly and reached up to the next branch with his right hand, planted his right foot against a knothole on the tree’s trunk and climbed higher as quietly as cat, careful not to disturb any of the branches or leaves.

“Got you!” he cried, tagging Hale’s foot with his hand.

Hale yelped in surprise. “Blast! I didn’t even hear you or see you coming, Pip!”

Pippin broke out in a great peal of laughter. “That’s what everybody always says!”

So it was Hale’s turn to hide his eyes and count next.

One of the things Pippin enjoyed about playing with Hale and Helinand was that they liked to climb trees almost as much as he did. While most hobbits did not like heights and so did not climb trees, climbing trees seemed to be practically in the Tooks’ blood. But back at the Great Smials, where Pippin’s family now lived, there weren’t many lad cousins near Pippin’s age to climb trees with. Of the Great Smials cousins, the one Pippin was closest to was Ferdibrand, and he was seven years older than Pippin and played more with the tweenagers than with Pippin now. His favourite cousin, Merry, was afraid of heights and never wanted to climb trees. Pippin usually either had to climb trees with his sisters, which wasn’t nearly as much fun, or climb by himself with Dickon running in circles beneath the tree, waiting for Pippin to return to his senses, come down from the tree, and start playing with him again. And while Pippin did enjoy climbing trees with Frodo when he came over from Bag End, Frodo was old, already thirty-five, and sometimes a lad wanted to climb trees and play lad-games with lads his own age.

Pippin was having a grand time playing in the tree with Hale and Helinand. They took turns hiding their eyes and counting, laughing and praising each other on their good hiding spaces. And when they tired of playing find-the-hobbit, they rested and chatted for a while about the goings on in Tookland and in North Cleeve.

They were careful to keep an eye on Diamond. When she and Dickon had got tired from their dancing, Diamond had gone back on the swing for a while, interrupting her singing once in a while to laugh in delight. But she had eventually tired of the swing and was now busying herself by gathering daisies and sticking them in Dickon’s fur. Pippin laughed at his poor dog, having to suffer such an indignity. But, just like Pippin, Dickon was laughing, too, as Diamond tucked a daisy behind his ear and continued to sing to him.

When they had caught up on what was happening in the rest of the Shire and were completely rested, Hale, Helinand, and Pippin began to swing upside down from the tree’s branches, seeing who could swing from the highest one.

Diamond came wandering back to the tree and looked up at her brothers and distant cousin. “Mum says that if you do that, all of your blood will rush to your head and you’ll get dizzy.” She looked up into Pippin’s Tookish green eyes and pondered. “If you get dizzy while hanging upside down from a tree, does the sky start tilting and spinning around like the ground does?”

She began spinning herself around and around like a top as quickly as she could until she fell to the ground to demonstrate what she meant. She fell right into a pile of leaves and looked up, a crooked smile on her face as she tried to make sense out of a world that wouldn’t stay still.

Her hair was covered with leaves from the pile she landed on and she had a little smudge of dirt on the tip of her pointy nose. She looked like a faerie from a woodland realm, all covered in green leaves and yellow flowers. Just like in some of the stories Pippin had read. Dickon came over and licked her face, making her close her eyes and giggle. By the time the impromptu face washing was over, the world had stopped moving beneath her.

Diamond stood up and tested her footing to make sure it was solid again. “Can I climb, too?”

Pippin looked up at Hale and Helinand doubtfully. It was one thing for their little sister to join them at the tree, where she had proven to be surprisingly good, but quite another for her to actually be able to climb the tree.

The two brothers exchanged glances and grinned down at their sister.

“Sure you can, Diamond!” said Hale. “Just be careful. We’ll come lower so we can help you.” They were quite a way up in the tree at the time, with Pippin a couple of feet below them.

“Has she ever climbed a tree before?” Pippin asked Hale.

“No, but it will be interesting to see if she can do it!” he grinned in reply.

“You stay right here,” Diamond told Dickon, pointing a finger of one hand at him and petting him with the other. Dickon sat and wagged his tail at her as if he understood.

Diamond looked at the tree appraisingly, trying to figure out the best way to climb up. Pippin silently climbed lower until he sat on one of the branches closest to the ground, just a little above her head. Diamond looked nervously up at him, her bright greenish-blue eyes wide. Now that she had decided to try to climb the tree, she wasn’t sure how to go about it.

“Hold onto that branch right there with your right hand,” he instructed her gently, turning himself to get a better look at the part of the trunk in front of Diamond, “and put your right foot on that bump.” Although he could have got out of the tree and helped her from the ground, he knew just how important it would be to her to feel that she had climbed the tree all by herself. Hale and Helinand stopped climbing down when they saw that Pippin was taking care of their sister, although they did not resume their play. They stayed where they were, ready to help if needed.

Diamond nodded slowly and then reached her hand up for the branch. When her right foot was on the bump, she looked up at Pippin again. He rewarded her with a warm smile.

“Good! All right, now, put your left hand in that small knothole and pull yourself up until you can get your left foot on top of that bump over there.” Pippin could feel his heart beating as he concentrated on trying to give her the proper directions while reassuring her at the same time. He’d never tried to help a lass up a tree before, let alone one who was looking at him with such trust.

When her hand was on the knothole, Diamond pulled herself up as Pippin had instructed and held onto the tree. She looked up at him again for what to do next.

“That’s excellent, Diamond,” Pippin grinned. “Now you just keep doing that, putting your hands and feet wherever you can gain purchase, your right hand and foot next. There’s another knothole over there,” he said, pointing.

Diamond gave a half-smile as an answer and looked back at the tree, reaching up to the knothole with her right hand. Pippin didn’t tell her where to put her right foot; he let her find a spot that seemed comfortable to her. Holding on tightly with her hands and left foot, she pulled herself up until the toes of her right foot were digging into another knothole.

“That’s very good. Now keep coming,” said Pippin, reaching down with his right arm. “My hand is right here.”

Diamond continued to do as Pippin had instructed. It wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined, but it did require some concentration. And it was a bit scary not being on the ground anymore or having anything solid underneath any of her but her toes. But before she knew it, she was up to Pippin and reaching for his hand.

Pippin grabbed hold of Diamond’s hand gently but firmly and pulled her up to the branch where he was seated.

“You did it!” he exclaimed, hugging her quickly with pride and reassurance. “You’ve climbed your first tree! Well done!”

Diamond held onto the tree trunk with one hand and hugged Pippin back with her other arm. When they released each other, the two cousins were grinning widely at each other. Diamond was beaming with pride, her cheeks rosy red from the effort as well as a little embarrassment at getting such high praise from her cousin.

From up above, Hale and Helinand whooped and cheered enthusiastically, offering congratulations of their own.

“Now we can all play in the tree!” exclaimed Helinand.

“Wait until Mother and Father hear about this!” cheered Hale.

“I’m not sure if Aunt Holly will like it, but Uncle Bandigard will be thrilled!” beamed Pippin.

Diamond turned pink right to the tip of her pointed little nose. Then she looked down. The ground was so far away! And poor Dickon, left all alone down there, looked so little! It made her a little dizzy just thinking about how high up she was, but dizzy with excitement, not fear.

She wanted to climb higher.

Pippin showed Diamond how to grab branches and pointed out some of the best spots for putting hands and toes in order to climb higher.

The four cousins played in the tree until it was time for elevenses.

Pippin smiled at the memory and sighed. He pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked around him at the dark moors of the North Farthing.

How he wished he could climb a tree with Diamond again right now. It was one of the things they still enjoyed doing together even after all these years, much to Merry’s puzzlement.

The smile faded on Pippin’s face as he thought of Diamond, sick in bed with the Winter Sickness. He desperately hoped that she was nowhere near as badly ill with it as he used to get before the Ent draughts. Pippin’s chest ached, like there was a gaping hole in it threatening to steal his Diamond away from him.

Just when the ache was becoming too much for Pippin to bear, a familiar and most welcome smial came into view. Pippin and Tarry continued on in silence.

At last, they came to the front door of the smial, where Bandigard and Hale stood grimly waiting for them. Pippin dismounted and handed the reins to the stablehand.

Pippin embraced Diamond’s father and then her brother quietly.

“I’m glad you’ve come, son,” said Bandigard. “Diamond’s been waiting for you.”

To be continued