~9~

I had planned earlier to plead tiredness and get away from the banquet early, but now that I am here, I don’t know if that is necessary.

Aragorn seats Sam and I beside him, placing me between them, so I have no fear of any “hero-stuck” stranger sitting beside me. Merry and Pippin are at the far end of the table with Eomer and Prince Imrahil, and seem to be having a lovely time.

When the pages bring out the food, Aragorn leans over to Sam and I, and says, “Eat what you can, but don’t overdo it. I know it’s been a while, but you are still healing.”

We nod, and as we begin eating, the man across the table strikes up a conversation with us about the food where we come from. He does not ask about our journey or what we did in the evil land, or say anything about the war, and for that I am grateful.

By the time the banquet is over, and people are mingling about the palace, talking, I am surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed myself, despite having eaten hardly anything.

Sam and I join Pippin and Merry who are standing with a young boy about a foot taller than they are. They quickly introduce the boy as “Bergil, Pippin’s friend who’s Da is in the guard.”

The boy smiles as Sam and I are introduced, and says, “Pleased to meet you.”

Sam and I respond in kind.

“I’ve told Bergil all about you,” Pippin states, smiling quite innocently.

I raise an eyebrow. “Did you now?” I say, looking at my cousin, who nods. I turn to the boy. “Don’t believe whatever he told you, it’s probably not true.” The boy grins, as though he’s already found this fact out already. I turn back to Pippin. “What did you tell him, Pip?”

“Only what I’ve told anyone else about you,” he responds in a playfully guarded tone.

I smile a little, thinking suddenly of how close I had come to never being annoyed by my Pip again. And for once I have no answer for him.

“Well,” Merry says, seeing Bergil yawn. “I think we’d best send Bergil off to bed, and I have a feeling the four of us need to sleep as well.”

I yawn just as he says this.

And so we say goodnight to Bergil who heads off for his home, and then go find Aragorn and Gandalf to tell them we are headed to our rooms.

On our way to our rooms, I realize that I didn’t see anyone tonight staring at us strangely. I know most of the guests had traveled with us from Osgiliath and Ithilien, but even those who hadn’t, treated us normally. But I am too tired to follow this train of thought tonight.

We reach our rooms and immediately begin figuring out our sleeping arrangements.

“Maybe we should move some blankets and pillows into one of the rooms and three of us could sleep on the floor,” Pippin suggests.

“But then we’d be arguing all night over who sleeps on the bed,” I say, not wanting to get into that tonight.

“But we could take the mattresses off a few of the beds and all sleep on the floor,” Merry says.

“Or we could just use this room,” Sam suggests, popping his head out of the closest doorway. “The bed’s big enough for the four of us.”

“Well, that’s settled,” Pippin states. “How about a quick snack before bed? Aragorn said they stocked the kitchen for us.”

Merry and Sam heartily agree, so Sam and Pippin head off to find us something to eat and Merry and I gather up some extra blankets and pillows and climb up onto the bed to wait for them.

“Tell me about Bergil,” I ask. “How did Pippin meet him? What is he like?”

Merry tells me that Pippin had met him while he had been wandering around Minas Tirith. He tells me as much as he knows about the boy, which isn’t much, until he suddenly stops in mid-sentence and grabs my hand.

“Stop doing that,” he says, looking a little scared, but trying to hide it.

“What?” I ask, not knowing what he means.

“You keep grabbing at your shirt collar. You’ve been doing that for the last four days.” He meets my eyes, and I look at him confused. I was unaware I’d been doing that. “The Ring is gone, Frodo,” he says finally, tightening his grip on my hand when I try to free myself.

I look away, looking at my hands, the right hand ring finger still bandaged and healing.

“I thought you’d stop after a while, but you keep doing it. When you do that it makes me feel as though we’re back on the Quest again with that thing still around your neck.” Now he does look scared, and I don’t know what to tell him. “Why do you do that?” he asks.

Before I can come up with a reasonable answer, Pippin comes into the room and I pull my hand back.

“We’ve found mushrooms!” he exclaims, beaming. “Aragorn left a note that he’d had them imported from some place that has mushrooms, and that there are plenty of them!”

Merry and I smile, our little conversation now completely forgotten, by me at least, as Sam comes in with some mugs and a pitcher of water. Pippin deposits a tray of mushrooms, meat and cheese on the bed covers.

“And they’re good too! I just had to sample them on the way in,” Pippin says, grinning impishly at us.

I am the first one to grab one from the tray, realizing that I haven’t had mushrooms probably since leaving Rivendell.

Before we know it, the tray is empty and we are heading off to bed.

* * *

I wake with a start halfway through the night, wondering what woke me. My heart is thumping in my chest, though if I have been awakened by a nightmare I don’t remember it.

I look to my right and See Pippin curled up under the covers so only his curls are visible. I roll over to face my left, and scoot closer to Sam. He wraps his arms about me in his sleep and I drift back asleep, feeling safe again.