Chapter 7. Strider

Over the past few days and stretching into this newly-dawning day, the very air in the town of Bree carried celebration on every breeze – sights, sounds and smells. Bright bunting and floral garlands criss-crossed the streets and hung from the windows, and blooming planters and window boxes added a note of freshness to the good smells of cooking, baking and roasting. Music, along with laughter and cheerful conversation, sounded from cocks'-crow until late into the short summer night. The Prancing Pony, as Bree's chief inn, was full to the rafters with celebrants – Men and Hobbits and even a few Dwarves.

The Bree-land's Summerdays celebration, which had already been in force for three days, continued for an extra day, having been extended by the presence of the King and Queen and nobles, visiting from their summer at the Lake, as well as the Counsellors of the North-kingdom from the Shire (three Hobbits, comprising the Thain of the Shire along with the Mayor of the Shire-folk and the Master of Buckland) and two from the Bree-land (a Man and a Hobbit, both of excellent reputation and known for their common sense). 

The town had doubled in size since the return of the King, and it showed not only in the numerous new buildings that had sprung up but also in the crowds of Hobbits and Men thronging the streets on this festive day. Truly, the streets were crowded with cheerful celebrants, though due to this day's schedule, they were concentrated most in the area between The Prancing Pony and the West-gate.

A large body of Men and Hobbits, King Elessar and Queen Arwen at the fore, flanked by Thain Peregrin, Master Meriadoc and Mayor Samwise, with their families ranged behind them, emerged into the courtyard of the inn to a deafening ovation. The King raised his arm and waved it in the air, and eventually the clamour died to the point where a Man's bellow could be heard, perhaps...

Elessar had no need to bellow, however, for when he began to speak, his voice held a quality that penetrated the crowd noise, drawing everyone's attention from oldest gaffer to tiniest babe. Tall and kingly, he stood before them, taller than all who were near him – Men as well as Hobbits – and the Travellers were reminded of Frodo's description of him at his Coronation, years earlier: ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him.

'People of the Bree-land and the Shire,' he spoke, and though he addressed the multitude, yet each individual in the crowd felt as if he directed his remarks individually and personally to them. 'Ye have lived through fire and peril, pestilence and drought, famine and fortune, dark days and dire winters... yet throughout, ye have held on to the Good – survived the onslaught of evil – rebuilt from the ruin of War – and prospered!'

A great cheer arose when he paused.

'There is much to celebrate!' Elessar continued. The Hobbit-folk in his audience, with their preference for short, plain speech, were especially appreciative of this sentiment.

'I commend you for your courage, your perseverance, and your kindliness towards strangers. Though some of these did not merit your friendship, and sought to do harm, there are many more who bless you for your open-heartedness and generosity.'

Among those who stood behind the King were several Rangers, swords at their sides and bow-cases and quivers on their backs. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree, and their faces were pale and stern, with keen grey eyes. And though they seemed to have been at some pains of making themselves presentable, for their high boots of supple leather were clean and not mud-caked, and their heavy dark-green cloaks showed no signs of travel stains, they remained rough and grim of appearance, looking more like shadows of the kingly Man who stood before them than the nobles and knights of the North-lands they truly were.

Although the Bree-folk listened eagerly to the tales they could tell and the news they brought from afar, these Men had maintained their distance from the Bree-landers over the centuries, and the Bree-folk, in their turn, had tolerated their presence and had never seen fit to extend the hand of friendship to the wanderers. Even today, they were regarded with awe and some fear.

And yet Butterbur had considered their coin to be as good as any other Man's, had served them the same quality of drink and fine, fresh viands as he gave the locals. No crusts of stale bread or overripe stew had been offered to them over the years, not even during the darker times when food and drink ran short in Bree. Indeed, the innkeeper and his father before him (and his grandfather, and his grandfather) had provided food and sanctuary to injured Rangers in the past, even when they had no coin to pay for the bed and board. (Not that the innkeepers ever went unrewarded; for haunches of venison and braces of waterfowl would appear suddenly and unexpectedly just outside the kitchen door some time after the inn had sheltered one of these mysterious Men until he recovered enough from his wounds or illness to disappear into the surrounding country once more.)

'And so, we thank you for your hospitality and cheer, commend you for your faithfulness, and look forward in hope for many years of prosperity to come!' Elessar concluded.

When the noisy acclaim began to die down to the point where words might be heard when exchanged between onlookers, Mayor Sam said to the Thain, and the Master beyond him, 'I couldn't have said it better myself.'

Pippin laughed and clouted Sam on the shoulder. 'High praise indeed, coming from you, O excellent Mayor!' He was joined in his merriment by all the Shire-hobbits surrounding him. And as the cheers and applause subsided further, Pippin saw fit to stoke the flames of celebration once more by raising his sword high in the air, gleaming in the sunlight and catching everyone's attention, and shouting, 'Three cheers for the Bree-landers!' With great vigour and enthusiasm, he led the Shire-folk and all those in the royal party – King and Queen and nobles and guardsmen – in a rousing set of cheers.

Not to be outdone, the Bree-land's Counsellors of the North-kingdom commanded three cheers for the Shire-folk, and then more cheers for the King and Queen. A distinct possibility of hoarseness on the part of many throats arose and was – fortuitously – headed off by the advent of Elessar's Captain of the Guard, who emerged from the stables leading several horses by the reins, followed by other Men and Hobbits leading more horses and ponies.

'And now!' Elessar said, raising his hand and his voice once more. 'We must bid you fare-well! For it is a long way back to the Lake, and to the Shire, and so we must begin before the morning advances any further, lest we be tempted to shirk our duties and stay over another day!' For the Sun was more than halfway on her journey to her highest point in the sky before she would once more begin the long glide down towards evening. 

A mixed response greeted this sentiment, with many apparently considering extending the festivities a valid option, while others (many of whom most likely had work waiting for them on their farms or work-benches) applauded the wisdom and practicality of their King.

The large group of notables standing before the inn broke apart then. The King and Queen and others of their party from the Lake mounted their horses, whilst the Thain and Mayor and Master and the Hobbits with them mounted their ponies. For their part, the Rangers simply seemed to melt away, for they moved backwards, vanishing into the crowd of fare-welling folk until even their tall forms were somehow indistinguishable from the nobles and guardsmen surrounding the King and Queen. By the time all the visitors were in their saddles, ready to depart, the Rangers were long gone.

King and Queen nudged their beasts into motion, heading towards the West-gate, and the Counsellors of the North-kingdom representing the Shire rode immediately behind them. A long parade of visitors followed in their train, and the Bree-landers separated to either side of the broad street to make way for the departure, cheering wildly, waving bright cloths and throwing flowers to strew the travellers' path.

*** 

By this point in the morning, the crowd on the street before them was thinning considerably, drawn, perhaps, by the cheers resounding from the western side of the town. It was not long before the street was empty, for all practical purposes. Together, Ferdibrand and Haldoron peeped around the corner of the building where the New Fellowship had concealed themselves in the dark before dawn early this morning, and considering the earliness of the summer dawn, they had sought their hiding place early indeed.

'All clear, I deem,' Haldoron said. 'A few stragglers, perhaps, but they aren't likely to mark a Man and a few Hobbits walking quietly away from the celebration and out the opposite gate. It is a day of business, after all, and everyone will be returning to business not long after fare-welling the royal party, in all likelihood.'

'Work never waits,' Robin Bolger muttered. As a working hobbit, he was all too familiar with the old adage, Not enough hours in the day... which even held, in his experience, for long summer days.

'Ten o' the clock,' Ferdi said, consulting his pocket watch and tucking it away once more. To his nephew, he said, 'I think that's about as authentic as we can manage, on this day.'

'Except for the crowds,' Faramir said, being a stickler for detail, 'and there are no inquisitive heads peeping out of doors or popped over walls and fences. All the Bree-folk, more or less, are watching travellers who are departing from the wrong gate.' Just as his father had planned, to provide a diversion from his departure with his Companions as they began their epic journey.

'For when the original party left, all those years ago – or so it says in the Red Book,' Pippin-lad Gamgee affirmed, 'most of the inhabitants of Bree and Staddle, and many even from Combe and Archet, were crowded in the road to see the travellers off on their journey. Including all the other guests in the inn, who were at the doors or hanging out of the windows, as I recall.'

'Perish the thought,' said Robin Bolger under his breath, for he knew all too well the peril to his Uncle Ferdibrand and cousin Faramir should word of their expedition get out and spread widely until it reached the ears of unscrupulous Men.

But Pippin-lad Gamgee hadn't finished speaking. 'Well, besides not having a crowd of people watching us as we leave town, to be any more "authentic",' he mused, shrugging his backpack into a more comfortable position, 'we'd have to wait until October! ...or, more properly, the day before.'

Ferdi gave him a withering look. 'Let us not do just that,' he said coolly, 'even if we should, at a later date, say that we did.'

Pippin-lad and Faramir Took exchanged a glance, and the latter shrugged. 'We must make do, the best we can, with what we have to work with,' the son of the Thain said.

Their Ranger-guide, Haldoron, barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Had he had charge of the matter, rather than this youth, they'd have departed in the middle night and completely avoided any and all notice from bystanders. 

Bad enough, it was, that Hobbits seemed inclined to discuss every detail of what they were doing, rather than actually doing it and getting on with the plan. Was this one of the lessons Elessar intended him to learn?

He cleared his throat softly to end all discussion – for the moment, anyway – and draw his fellow travellers' attention to himself. 'Very well, then,' he said. 'Let us go whilst the way is clear before us.'

*** 

Author's note: Some text taken from "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony", "Strider", "A Knife in the Dark", and "The Steward and the King" in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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