This story was written for Marigold´s Challenge 40. The Challenge was to write a story about a Mc Guffin. Mine was "a golden Chalice".

A Hobbity Wizard

Beta by Marigold and Llinos

“Peregrin Took!” a rusty voice called out. “Come out of the pond! At once!”

A dripping wet, little Hobbit ran laughing towards the wizard and jumped into his arms.

“Gandalf, look, I caught a frog!”

“Nice, nice,” the wizard muttered and had a short look at the green, slimy creature in the little one’s hands.

“Why don’t we sit down under the tree over there and I’ll tell you a story?” he suggested then, with the hope the child would calm down.

Why had he just volunteered to mind this little Took for a whole day?

He looked into the deep, green eyes of the tiny child. Joy, innocence and love looked back at him. He smiled.

He knew why.

These little beings were really endearing and managed to ease his often-worried mind with one warm smile on their carefree faces. And this child especially had a very cheerful air around him.

Gandalf put the Hobbit back on the ground and began to take off his wet clothes, to have them dry in the sun.

Pippin was hopping laughingly on one leg to the other during this and talking non-stop, his sparkling eyes catching every movement around. Gandalf just heard bits of words from, “Look, there’s a bird… Oh, a bee… Hoi, there’s a squirrel… Look, a pretty butterfly…”

That Gandalf did not really pay attention to his chattering did not bother Pippin in the least.

The wizard wrapped the child up in his own grey cloak and sat down with him in his lap, under the big, shadow-giving tree. Then he stuck one of the biscuits that they had brought with them into the Hobbit’s mouth.

“So, now it is my turn to talk.”

Pippin ate his biscuit happily and Gandalf started to tell his story.

“Once upon a time there was a young, beautiful princess, with the name Jolanthe. She was very happy. She loved life and had everything that her heart desired and above all she had the loveliest voice, that no one ever before had heard.

“That however, aroused the envy of her sister Mathilde, who neither had any talents, nor was she blessed with amazing beauty and so she was always standing in the shadow of Jolanthe.

“One day she therefore went to the evil wizardess Iken and…”

“There are wizard lasses?” Pippin asked astonished.

“Well…yes.” Gandalf replied.

“ Is Iken your lass?”

“No, I don’t have a lass.”

Pippin looked at Gandalf with pity in his eyes.

“I understand,” he said in his most “adult- like” voice and a serious expression on his face. “Some just need more time to find the right one. If you need any help, tell me. I have three sisters you know, so I really know a lot about lasses.”

Gandalf succeeded only barely in hiding his amusement.

“Is Iken then maybe a cousin of yours?” Pippin continued.

“No”.

“How many cousins do you have by the way?” Pippin asked.

“None”.

Pippin stared at Gandalf, shocked now. “NONE?!” That is so sad. I can lend you one or two of mine, if you like. I have enough of them to share. Cousins are really fun to be with. Better than sisters. But you can’t have Merry. But maybe…yes, there’s my cousin once removed on my mother’s side…

Gandalf put a hand over the Hobbit’s mouth, sensing the danger. Even the smallest Hobbit could already, as soon as he or she was able to talk, go on and on about family history.

“Do you want to hear the rest of the story?” he asked rather desperately.

Pippin nodded.

“… so Mathilde went to Iken and asked her for her service.  In exchange for one box filled with pure gold, Iken put a curse on Jolanthe. She changed her into a stone and only the water from the self-filling golden chalice would be able to change her back.

“But the chalice was guarded by the terrible monster Oden. A two-headed beast, with sharp teeth and claws, the hot breath of a dragon and as tall as a house.

“The way to Oden’s cave also was not an easy one. It led over deep gorges, furious rivers and up steep mountain walls.

“However, nevertheless there were some brave princes who tried to rescue Jolanthe from the curse.

“It is said that one even managed it to the entrance of Oden’s cave, but the hot breath of the monster melted his sword away in seconds and the prince was never seen again.

“Jolanthe’s curse was never broken and she had to stay a stone forever.”

Pippin looked sadly at Gandalf. “Poor Jolanthe. It surely would not be nice to be a stone.”

Gandalf dressed Pippin in the now dry clothes and nodded. “Surely not.”

He felt a sting in his heart, when he saw the sympathy in the eyes of the little Hobbit. Maybe he should not have told him that particular story.

“How would it be to have a funny story now?” he asked to save the situation and started to speak.

Pippin’s thoughts however were with Jolanthe and he was not listening to the wizard’s words.

He was digging with his fingers in the earthy ground. Suddenly he shouted.

“Gandalf! I have found Jolanthe!” and held up a stone in the front of the wizard’s eyes.

“We have to save her. We have to get the golden chalice out of Oden’s cave!”

Fast as lightning Pippin ran off. Gandalf, who still felt a bit guilty for telling the lad a tragic story like that, followed him.

Silently they crawled through a small wood. “Pssst”, Pippin made his way to Gandalf’s side and looked at him sternly. “You have to be quiet. This is a troll wood. You don’t want them to hear us, do you?”

He picked up two sticks from the ground. One he held out to Gandalf. “Here, take your sword! I can already smell the trolls…” Pippin sniffed the air.

His face brightened. “This way!”

After some minutes walk, they reached a big meadow that was lying at the edge of the wood.

Pippin knelt down, put one ear to the ground and listened as hard as he could. “In this direction! Hurry!”

The Hobbit lad ran over the meadow, as fast as his short legs could carry him and the wizard followed hurriedly behind with large steps.

He shook his head. On a troll hunt with a Hobbit lad. He really could tell no one about this.

A smial appeared at the side of the meadow and now Gandalf was able to smell the “trolls” also. They smelled like cherries and cinnamon!

While he still was thinking, an angry shout was heard.

“YOU RASCAL!”

Gandalf looked around, searching for Pippin. Where was he?

Suddenly a small figure ran quickly past him and shouted. “RUN! The trolls are coming!”

Behind a tree they came panting to a halt and Pippin grinned up cheekily at Gandalf.

“Hungry?” he asked, now with an expression of innocence of his face and held a still steaming cake towards the wizard.

“Pippin! You cannot just steal other peoples cakes!”

“Merry says, it is all right sometimes, but only if they have a lot. So would you like a piece or not? I can eat it all on my own,” the child babbled on between two bites.

Gandalf shook his head in disbelief, however he also took the offered piece in his hand and tried it.

“Tasty!” he thought and felt as if at least three zeros of his age were rubbed out.

No, that he really could tell no one.

After not one crumb of the cake was left the adventurous journey to Oden’s cave continued.

Hobbit and wizard marched through the sunny Shire and Pippin sang as loudly as possible some of the songs he had heard from Bilbo.

Gandalf knew those songs quite well and he smiled at the long ago memories that started to form in his mind.

Soon they came to a “wild and magic river”, as Pippin called it.

“You are not allowed to look into the water,” he explained to Gandalf. “This is an enchanted river. If you look at it, the river spirit will eat you!”

So they waded through the shallow river, with their eyes stubbornly focused straight ahead across the water, which just reached over the wizard’s ankles.

Suddenly Gandalf stepped on a moss-covered stone and with a cry he landed with a splash in the river. Cursing he came to his feet again and looked to the riverbank.

There Pippin was standing, arms crossed before his chest, rolling his eyes.

“I told you, you should not look at the water. The river spirit nearly had you. You really are lucky, that I am here and could banish the spirit back to the floods with my magic staff!”

He lifted up his stick, which he had taken from where it had been stuck in the waistband of his trousers, and grinned.

“A thank you would be nice!”

Gandalf stared at him, speechless for a moment. Than he started laughing, bowed deeply in front of the Hobbit and said, “Thank you very much!”

“You are welcome!” Pippin responded dryly.

Not long after the fight with the river spirit another new danger came near. “Orcs!” Pippin whispered. “We have to be very near Oden’s cave!” He looked around.

“We have to hide. There!” he pointed to an old tree. “Quickly, climb up it!”

The two Hobbits that came by looked in astonishment at the wizard in the tree. Then they exchanged many meaningful glances.

“I think the good fellow has had a few too many times together with that cracked Baggins of Bag End!” whispered the one to the other in his ear. That one nodded, but smiled in a friendly way at Gandalf while passing him and said,” I wish you a good day Mr. Gandalf!”

Gandalf nodded back politely and felt his face grow hot.

Pippin grinned from the upper part of the tree, well hidden from the eyes of the passing Hobbits. He picked a plum from the tree and threw it against the back of one Hobbit.

That one turned around and blinked, looking in surprise at the wizard, but then walked on without saying a word. Gandalf saw the two turn around twice more and stare back at him.

He climbed out of the tree.

“Enough now Peregrin Took! It grows late! We should go back!”

Pippin also climbed out of the tree and when he was on the last, low branch he jumped off of it and shouted, ”But we haven’t found the chalice yet!” and ran off.

“PEREGRIN!” Gandalf called after the child. But it was hopeless. The little Hobbit ignored him and vanished in a nearby field of barley.

Pulling out his own hair the wizard stormed behind. “I really am too old for this!”

He looked around, searching. A Hobbit could not just vanish into thin air, could he? Not even one so small as Peregrin Took.

He really could not go back to Brandy Hall without Pippin. Not only the Took family, who were visiting and helping to prepare for a party, would have his head for that, but also the Brandybucks and the Bagginses.

“Pippin!” he called. “Pippin, where are you?”

“Ahhhhhhh, HELP! It is Oden!” he suddenly heard the missing child scream, followed by a loud barking.

Gandalf ran as fast as he could through the field and reached Pippin just in time, before the big, teeth-baring dog that was tight on the heels of the lad could reach him.

He picked the child up from the ground and ran quickly the whole way to the ferry that led over the Brandywine River.

Fighting for air he sat down on the ferry and looked at Pippin. “Are you hurt?” he gasped.

Pippin stared at him with the highest respect, while he took a bite of the carrot that he pulled from his trouser pocket, and then held it in front of Gandalf’s mouth.

“You can run so fast! Don’t you want to come and join Merry and I, when we go the next time to scrump Farmer Maggot’s vegetables? With you the dogs have no chance at all to catch us!”

Gandalf felt the unbearable need to shake the little Hobbit and he nearly did so, when Pippin suddenly pulled the stone out of his pocket and looked at the wizard with sad eyes.

“We have failed!”

He gently stroked the stone and whispered, “I am sorry Jolanthe.”

Gandalf sighed. His anger disappeared. He sat the child in his lap.

“I have forgotten to tell you this morning about the second possibility that there is, to free Jolanthe.”

“What is it?”

“You have to wish very hard and then you have to throw the stone into this very river! You might not know it, but this is a magic river. Some drops of the water of the golden chalice were once poured into it.”

Pippin beamed, pressed his eyes firmly shut to make his wish and then threw the stone as hard and far as he could into the floods of the Brandywine.

“You don’t have to say thank you, Jolanthe,” he called after it. “It was our pleasure to save you!” He looked up at the wizard. “Right Gandalf?”

Gandalf nodded and managed a tired smile.

Then the two heroes marched together back to Brandy Hall.

-  The End  -