Blearily, Frodo rubbed a hand across his eyes as he sat upon the steps before the Great Door. His other hand was draped about Merry’s shoulders. Merry’s eyes were reddened, too, from lack of sleep and from crying, as the two stared at the party remnants upon the lawn in the new day’s morning light.

Tattered bits of ribbon lay here and there upon the grass, and the cloths hung crookedly upon the tables where they had been pushed aside in the night’s searching, smears of food remains streaked haphazardly across them.

Also found upon the ground of the Smials was the stump of the clothesline post, smeared just slightly with what, when a healer was consulted, she confirmed was blood. Nearby, a few remaining crumbs that had not been consumed by enterprising birds or squirrels marked where a circle of biscuits had once lain.

Where the rise of the lawn met the road beneath this spot, the dirt showed tracks. Tracks of wheels which had cut into it over the years, resurfacing inevitably in the same spots after each spring’s new application of gravel. A criss-cross of fresh tracks, laid in the dust the night before, of waggons which had departed from the party.

Occasionally, to the side, a lone hoof- or footprint stood out before blending back in to the melange that covered the road between the Smials and Tuckborough. Many hobbits, the night before, had passed that way.

Frodo heard a bell struck somewhere within the Smials and shifted slightly.

“It’s time to go in,” he said softly to Merry. “Are you ready?”

Merry lifted his wobbling chin to look Frodo in the eyes.

“He’s still gone, Frodo,” he said in a wavering voice, though he did not cry this time.

“Aye, Merry, I know,” Frodo sighed. His eyes tracked the flight of a bird which flew across the sky heading eastward, perhaps to travel eventually beyond the Shire.

“I know,” he sighed again, and then stood and extended a hand to help Merry up. “Come on, then. Let’s go and get some breakfast and hear what Paladin has planned.”

Slowly, taking Frodo’s hand as he stood but still sweeping his eyes back and forth across the lawn, Merry followed.