Chapter 8. Change in the Weather

The cavern holding Tookland's treasure hoard – what remained of the Thain's and Tooks' Treasury in these lean times, any road – had been delved by Dwarves in the distant past, though the details of its construction lay well beyond the memory of any living Tooks. In fact, the record containing the name of the Thain who'd hired the Dwarves was long lost and had, quite possibly, crumbled to dust by this time in the distant reaches of the Room of Records which was tucked away in the innermost reaches of the Great Smials – out of sight, out of mind as in the old saying. On a previous trip to the cavern, Ferdi had listened to Pippin speculate aloud as to how the Dwarves had been hired in the first place, as well as the sort of treatment the Tooks had afforded the guest-workers and what sort of payment had been involved.

'How I would like to invite Gimli to inspect his ancestors' work,' the young Thain said now, staring into the darkness beyond the opened door. He detached the lantern he'd carried here from its fastening on his pack, opened the glass and lit the wick with a striker, and closed the glass and set the lantern down while he secured the small box of strikers in his pocket once more. Taking up the lantern again, the young Thain lifted it high, beckoned to Ferdi to follow, and entered the cavern, scrutinising the rocky wall just inside the doorway. At last, finding what he sought, he moved closer and pressed the spot on the wall that would close the hidden door, which slid almost silently into place, leaving only the tiniest of cracks on this side of the wall. 'Dwarf-made,' he whispered, just as he had on previous visits. Now that the light of day, even on this overcast morning, no longer shone in through the large doorway, the darkness seemed to press in upon them.

The lantern's surrounding pool of light illuminated the barrels that Aldi and his engineers had lined up to one side of the door with their usual precision, but the rest of the cavern lay in darkness. The lantern-light did not reach as far as the ceiling above them, but once the young Thain and his head of escort had walked part-way across the echoing space towards the far wall, vague shapes began to emerge from the darkness ahead of them.

'Whatever happened to the need to keep the location of the treasure-hoard secret?' Ferdi replied in answer to Pippin's idea of inviting an Outsider to see the cavern, Dwarf-made or not. But then he winced as his softly-spoken words echoed in the darkness. The echoes bothered his head, for some reason, and he resolved to hold his tongue as much as possible until they left this enclosed space, as large or larger than the great room in the Smials, he thought, as if it had been delved to hold a dragon's hoard.

Where had all the treasure gone? Perhaps they'd never know.

Of a mercy, Pippin did not deign to answer his escort's rhetorical question. The two hobbits crossed the rest of the enormous space in blessed silence, without even the sound of footsteps, for both were moved by an inexplicable inclination to walk as softly as hobbitly possible.

They had only brought one lantern with them this time, all they'd need for this day's work, but now Ferdi found himself wishing for more light as he followed close behind the Thain, though he hardly needed the light on the smooth, even floor the Dwarves had fashioned. From his earlier exploration, he knew the walls that rose on all sides were equally smooth, their surface polished, at least as high as he'd been able to reach. He had no idea whether the ceiling was rounded, after the fashion of hobbit dwellings, or squared off, as Pippin had described the halls of Men and Dwarves. 

The bulk of Tookland's current wealth took the form of not enough coins and an uncomfortable amount of explosive black powder. It was a curious combination, perhaps, but considering the blended solidity and volatility of the Tooks, perhaps the nature of the current Thain's treasure-hoard was not so curious after all. 

'Here we are,' Pippin said quietly, the words clear in that silent space despite the muffling cloth he'd drawn over his face to protect his lungs from any dust that might have accumulated since the last time they were here. He lifted the lantern to skirt the first few chests, then set the lantern on a barrel near their intended target with exaggerated care.

Ferdi didn't blame him. He didn't fancy groping his way across the wide space to try and find the doorway if their solitary lantern should fall and fail... much less the struggle to find the concealed place on the wall that would cause the enormous door to swing open once more.

Next time we'll bring two lanterns with us, he vowed. ...and if we ride ponies, we could bring four. Not that four lanterns would light this space, but they'd hold off the darkness a bit better, at least, to his way of thinking.

You're becoming as bad as Merry Brandybuck with his horror of the dark, he scolded himself, remembering a long-ago exploration the two of them had shared as young lads. Merry had sworn him to silence; but now, he suddenly wondered if Pip had ever discovered their older cousin's weakness?

Not that it mattered. He doubted the Thain would ever provide the Master with a tour of the store-hole, especially considering the negative attitude that many Tooks held regarding the Brandybucks.

The young Thain and his escort took some time to count out the requisite amount of coin. They even checked the total twice before dividing the burden evenly between their packs. Next, despite the extra time added to the visit, they brushed the thin layer of dust off all the chests, not just the ones they'd breached (and where does the dust come from in this enclosed space? the head of escort briefly wondered), to disguise the location of the valuable chests amongst the jumble of containers.

When they'd finished this final task, Ferdi saw the younger cousin shake his head. 'What is it?' he asked, remembering to keep his voice low to minimise the echoes.

'By filling our packs according to Regi's reckoning, we're carrying away nearly the entire hoard,' Pippin replied. 'I think we are going to need to establish another "tradition" to raise additional funds, or we'll be in serious trouble before Spring rents come due...' The first fruits of the early part of the year, when those who farmed the land held by the Thain for the Tooks and Tooklanders would pay the first half of their annual rent – would go a long way to replenishing the Tookland's coffers. Until then, they'd have to tighten their belts in a manner of speaking, the upcoming holiday feasting notwithstanding. Although market day in Tuckborough occurred on the middle day of every week, bringing farmers from as far as Tookbank, the offerings would be relatively lean in the weeks after Yule, and the "Thain's share" of the cost each seller would pay for a market table would be correspondingly lessened.

'Establish another tradition?' Ferdi echoed, dumbfounded. 'What in the world do you mean by that?' It was bad enough to have to put up with a new Thain, even one that didn't have the temerity to try and foist new traditions off on the Tooks and Tooklanders. But here was Pip, his brash young cousin, suggesting he might do just that.

Pippin's laugh echoed weirdly in the cavern. 'Why of course!' he said merrily. 'It stands to reason that all traditions had to get started somehow... Hobbits didn't simply step out of thin air and start practising them!'

'I never thought about it before,' Ferdi admitted. He shouldered his pack and then rubbed at the worsening ache in his head, seemingly triggered by the earlier echoes and aggravated by the brightness of the lantern against the contrasting darkness. Suddenly being confronted with the riddle of where traditions had started in the first place was not helping any.

'They have a Winter Market in the Northfarthing, or so Diamond has said,' Pippin went on, nodding his thanks as Ferdi helped him lift his pack onto his back. The Thain then gestured to his head of escort to take the lantern from its resting place and lead the way to the opening, and so Ferdi did.

Behind him, Pippin kept talking. At least the young Thain was keeping his voice low – possibly part of the reason why he'd elected to walk behind Ferdi in the first place – and thus all unwittingly sparing Ferdi's aching head. Walking behind the escort and talking would be easier than talking to Ferdi over his shoulder as they made their way through the deep darkness that, if Ferdi was remembering right, Pip had compared to a place called "Moria". Not to mention that, even with the smooth floor, it would be all too easy to have a mishap if the younger cousin wasn't paying attention to his footing, what with holding the lantern, carrying a heavy burden, and talking over his shoulder! Perhaps Pip's Moria experience had taught the younger cousin some sort of lesson or other, Ferdi mused. Had there been some sort of mishap in Moria...?

...but, of course, Ferdi was leading the way at the moment, aching head and all. Luck forbear that he should stumble and drop the lantern into the bargain!

With shocking suddenness, a solid wall materialised before him, and he realised they'd crossed the wide cavern already! He ought to have counted his steps there and back again, and thus avoided being taken by surprise. 'Here we are,' he said, belatedly and quite unnecessarily, for surely Pip could see the wall as well as he could.

'Here we are,' echoed the young Thain quietly, followed by, 'Hold the lantern a little higher, if you please?'

Ferdi obliged, and Pippin bent closer to the wall to find the hidden pressure point. 'Here we are,' the younger cousin repeated under his breath, reaching to lay his palm against the wall at the proper spot. To Ferdi's mind, the young Thain's face above the cloth covering his mouth and nose looked pale in the lantern's light as he added, 'It'll be good to come out into the free air once more. Large as the cavern is, and even with Aldi's assurance that the Dwarves provided for a constant (if hidden) flow of fresh air, it always feels stuffy to me...'

The door seemed to open more slowly than Ferdi remembered, hampered perhaps by the blast of wind that cut off the Thain's casual talk and snuffed the lantern's glass-enclosed flame as it roared through the opening. Next, Ferdi heard a cry from his cousin and caught a glimpse of the cloth that had, a bare moment ago, covered Pippin's nose and mouth, as it was ripped from the younger cousin's hand by a violent gust of wind and whirled rapidly away through the air until it was out of sight.

An hour or perhaps as much as two hours earlier, a gentle mist had begun falling from the sullen sky just before the two Tooks had reached the overhang that concealed the cavern's entrance, promising to relieve the stifling heat of the day on their return journey to the Great Smials. But now as they emerged from the cavern with its thick, insulating walls of solid rock, the roar of the wind that greeted them was accompanied by an astonishing sight. Low-hanging black clouds obscured the vista of Green Hills marching into the distance, as could be seen from this high place on most days. Worse, the clouds were hurling sheets of rain being driven almost horizontally by the force of the wind.

'Wait it out?' Ferdi ventured, shouting to be heard above the wind and rain. The cavern would be dark and quiet, perhaps a bit chilly but eminently preferable to the wild weather that now confronted them.

To his astonishment, Pippin laughed. On second thought, perhaps it wasn't so astonishing at that, considering the younger cousin's capacity for recklessness. But the young Thain's next words changed Ferdi's impression of recklessness to grudging respect for Pippin's assessment of the situation. 'Who knows how long this might last?' the young Thain yelled into the wind. 'This looks to me like a regular three-day blow!'

Ferdi squinted his eyes against the assault of the wind and the pain in his head as he considered. At last, he nodded reluctantly. Though the older cousin could scarcely credit it, Pippin had a fine weather-sense when it came to the Green Hill country, perhaps as a result of his living and working in the open during his brief stint as a shepherd's assistant around the time he'd turned twenty. Ferdi fleetingly wondered why the young Thain hadn't anticipated this change in the weather; but then, except for the warning he might have taken from the increasing pain in his head (the reminder of a ruffian's club in the Battle of Bywater), despite his years as a hunter in the woods and hills, Ferdi himself had foreseen neither the sudden onset of this storm nor its ferocity.

'We haven't food for three days,' he agreed at the top of his voice.

In point of fact, though they'd started out well-supplied, they hadn't any food with them now; they'd eaten all they'd carried here and refilled their packs with useless coins.

'Nothing for it!' Pippin shouted, his hand tightening on his walking stick. 'Let us get down the mountain before the rain reduces the hillside to mud!'

Sliding down the great hill might be faster than trying to keep to their feet, Ferdi thought privately, but all he said was, 'Lead on!'

Though the wind stole the words away, Pippin apparently was able to read the sentiment on his escort's lips, for he nodded, took a deep breath, and stepped out from under the inadequate shelter of the overhang.

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Author's notes: 

Pippin's time as a shepherd's apprentice is told in the story Thain, another WIP of mine that is currently undergoing beta-reading and (here's hoping) due to be published in full in 2026.

The weather described in this story is drawn from the reports that emerged after a real-life historic weather event. More details to follow.

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