~11~

Right after breakfast we begin our game. Merry goes to stand in the corner, counting to one hundred, and the rest of us scatter.

Pippin runs down the hall to Legolas and Gimli’s quarters, Sam dashes for the garden atrium in the courtyard beyond, and I hurry to Aragorn’s chambers, hoping to find a wardrobe or chest I can hide in.

As I enter the rooms, I can hear Merry’s voice barely calling, “26, 27, 28,” and I make for the bedroom. I find a doorway in the corner that leads to a crawlspace where I find a few old pieces of furniture, one being an old wooden chest.

I open the lid and slide in, letting it close above me, and then I wait.

After a moment I begin to feel claustrophobic. The dark air begins closing in on me and I know I have to get outside or I’ll suffocate.

My thoughts go to what happened in the tower, and I shudder, suddenly bolting from the chest, and dash down the hallway, nearly running into Merry and Sam and Pippin all standing in the hall.

One look and I know hide and seek is probably not a good idea right now.

“You all right, Frodo?” Merry asks, gazing at me and attempting to smile. “You all make this game so easy, I didn’t even have to seek.”

I smile shakily, then say, “Why don’t we try a different game? One that doesn’t involve hiding.”

“I agree,” Pippin says inching closer to Merry.

* * *

“Maybe they have one in that library Aragorn was telling us about,” Merry says as Sam and I return from the kitchen with second breakfast.

“Have one what?” I ask, wondering what mischief he is up to now.

“I was wondering if they play chess here,” Merry says. “I wanted to know if they have a chess set in the library.”

“Well, you can ask Faramir,” I suggest.

“Faramir’s busy today, Frodo. Why don’t we go look for ourselves?”

I glance at him, then back to Sam and Pippin. What trouble could we possibly cause in the library? And sitting playing chess in a room full of books sounds perfectly harmless to me.

“All right,” I reply. “Let’s go look for the library.”

We find it relatively easily and I am awed by the sight of so many books. It is at least twice the size of the library in Rivendell!

“Well, we’d best not let Frodo in here or we might as well forget about ever seeing him again!” Merry jokes, grinning.

I smile. “Now, Merry, it’s not that dramatic, is it?”

He looks for a moment as though he’s seriously considering this question, but laughs when I glare at him.

“Well, this should keep us occupied for a while,” Sam says. “Chess board or no!”

We spend a while looking around, getting ourselves familiar with the layout of the room. There isn’t a chess board anywhere to be seen, but Pippin and Merry find another strange game that we can’t figure out how to play.

“Perhaps we should wait till Aragorn is free and have him show us how to play,” Pippin says, picking up one of the circular pieces and looking at it curiously.

“Perhaps we should,” I respond, tracing my finger along one of the black triangles on the board. “For now, though, let’s explore the books?” I question, looking at them hopefully.

“All right, we can look at the books now, love,” Sam says, smiling at me as though I’m a child waiting to open his presents at Yule.

I smile at him once more, and then the four of us dash off in different directions.

By the time we get back to our suite, each of us have at least one book that the librarian told us we could borrow.

He was very nice, though he was surprised to see the Ring-bearers in his library. He didn’t make me feel too uncomfortable, just bowed to us and introduced himself as Menegon, the Librarian of the Palace in Minas Tirith. He helped us find books and made us feel quite at home.

Now I am sitting on my bed in the room Sam and I are sharing, tired, but awake enough to read the book I’ve chosen on the history of Gondor.

Sam and my cousins are busy in the other room doing something, but I do not feel energetic enough to join them and Sam nearly ordered me to rest.

Tomorrow Faramir is going to take us to the lower quarters of the city to see the people and the market, and we must be rested for that.