Chapter 22. The Last Bridge

'They could not avoid the Road at this point, for they had to cross over the Hoarwell with the aid of the Last Bridge, as you may recall,' Pip-lad reminded the others, 'and so they hurried along with all the speed they could make.'

'And that is according to what my cousin Frodo wrote?' Ferdi asked the teen. 'I had the impression they were travelling rather slowly because of his wound.'

'Nevertheless,' the young Gamgee insisted, 'they made the best speed they could under the circumstances. Frodo rode upon Bill's back...'

'Frodo might have been able to go quickly, but the others were heavily burdened,' Robin Bolger said.

But his uncle interposed, 'Or Frodo might not have been able to go so quickly as you'd imagine.' His eyes were dark with remembered pain. 'Simply being mounted would not have solved the problem of his wounding... Though the pony may do all the work, the rider inevitably feels the jar of every step as a fresh plunge of the knife...'

Haldoron looked at the older Hobbit in surprise and then as quickly turned his gaze to the others, who wore expressions of shock at the violent image Ferdibrand had painted with his words.

Farry tentatively reached to touch Ferdi's sleeve. 'Beg pardon, Uncle,' he said, his voice gentle and unnaturally calm, as if he had a great deal of experience in dealing with suddenly emerging memories.

Considering he was the son of one of the Travellers and the nephew of another, the teen had doubtless witnessed Pippin or Merry in the throes of an all-encompassing flash of memory, Haldoron mused. He'd had his own moments...

Ferdi shook himself as one who emerges from a troubling dream, saying, 'Beg pardon? Whatever for?'

Instead of explaining, Robin adjusted his earlier thought as he observed, 'Those who were walking were heavily burdened, and Frodo was wounded... I wonder what "best speed" would have meant in their case.'

'A steady walk, I should think,' Faramir said, adjusting the strap of his pack to sit more comfortably on his shoulder.

'We could scavenge for rocks along the verge before we start walking,' Pip-lad suggested.

'Why would we do that, young Hobbit?' Haldoron asked.

The teen looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. 'If we cram our packs full of them, we ought to be heavily burdened!' he said. 'All the better to understand their experience!'

'You're not serious!' Farry protested.

Pip-lad exchanged glances with Robin, and then the two of them burst into gales of laughter. At last, the young Gamgee straightened. 'O' course I'm not!'

Robin, still laughing, pointed a shaking finger at Faramir. 'Your... face!' he gasped.

They might stand upon the verge all day, or at least another hour at this rate. Haldoron decided to take charge. 'A steady walk, then,' he said, stepping onto the Road and turning in the direction of the Last Bridge.

Ferdi followed and was soon trotting at his side. The three younger Hobbits hurried past them to take the vanguard.

'Now that's what I call making your best speed,' Ferdi called.

The teens had grown wiser in their journeying. Instead of looking back over his shoulder and risking a stumble, Farry acknowledged him with a wave.

They travelled along the Road for a mile or two at this pace, the Hobbits trotting and the Man walking, his long legs swinging easily along.

At the top of a short, steep slope, the leaders stopped.

'What is it?' Ferdi said as he and Haldoron came up to them.

Pip-lad pointed. 'The Bridge!' he said. 'The Travellers feared to see black figures waiting for them there, but thankfully, they saw none.'

'And so they crossed...' the Man began, but Pip-lad interrupted him.

'Not quite,' the teen contradicted. He swept one arm to the side. 'Strider made the others take cover in a thicket – it might even have been that one, there – whilst he scouted ahead to look for signs of their pursuers.'

'Did you want to play out that scene?' Haldoron asked the teens.

Farry squinched his eyes as he answered. 'The undergrowth looks scratchy,' he said. 'I think I get the gist.'

'It was not long before Strider came hurrying back, anyhow,' Pip-lad said dismissively, 'with an elf-stone cupped in his palm that he'd found in the mud in the middle of the Bridge.'

The Ranger-guide nodded, remembering Elessar's account of this part of the journey. 'Very well,' he said. He held out his empty hand, palm upward as if he cupped a jewel therein. 'Here is a sign that we may pass the Bridge, I deem.'

'That is what Strider said!' Pip-lad put in excitedly.

'Then let us pass the Bridge and be on our way,' Ferdi said. 'The day is not getting any younger.'

'It's not even noon!' Farry protested.

'Nevertheless, time is passing,' Ferdi said. 'And I, for one, do not fancy making camp in the middle of a bridge, of all places!'

At this, Haldoron remembered what Elessar had told him of the Tooks and their suspicion of unrestrained water, to the point where they hired Brandybucks to build their bridges for them. 'Let us be off,' he agreed.

They descended the slope and stepped onto the Bridge. All of them walked along in silence by common consent, with the Ranger-guide shortening and slowing his steps to match the Hobbits' walking pace.

'D'you hear it?' Pip-lad whispered, halting part-way across and holding a hand to his ear.

'Hear what?' Robin said.

'Hssst! Listen!' the teen insisted.

Haldoron became aware of the sound of water swirling far below, past the great arches that supported the Last Bridge.

Pip-lad ran to the edge, but he was not tall enough to see over the wall that separated the Road from the drop below. 'I want to see!' he said, jumping up and down, but even his jumps did not carry him high enough in the air to catch a glimpse. 'Haldor,' he pleaded, turning around. 'If it would not be too much to ask...? If you please...?'

Haldoron, moved by an impulse he did not immediately understand, joined the Gamgee teen at the side of the Road. 'Here, now,' he said, slipping his hands under the teen's arms. 'Upsy-daisy!' he added, the phrase he'd employed long ago with his young son slipping unheeded from his lips. In truth, bearing up this seventeen-year-old Hobbit child seemed not all that different from picking up his own son at the age of eight or ten.

Thus lifted, Pip-lad rested his elbows on the top of the wall, gazing in wonder at the gorge below. 'We're so high!' he gasped, adding, 'How in the world did they build a bridge with such tall arches?'

When the Gamgee teen had finished taking in the scenery, Haldoron caught a longing look in young Faramir's eye. 'Would you like to see the sights?' he said affably.

Farry flushed. 'If... if it would not be too much trouble...' he said. 'I should be most grateful for the opportunity.'

Though Farry was taller and heavier than his friend, Haldoron could lift him without much effort. Robin and Ferdibrand, being fully grown, would have been more of a challenge, but both turned down Haldoron's offer to help them see over the barrier.

'Very obliging, I'm sure,' was Ferdi's response. 'But I prefer to keep my feet firmly upon the ground... what there may be of it,' he finished, glowering at the surface underfoot. 'As it is, I'm already walking upon air for all practical purposes, and the sooner we're across, the better I'll feel about the whole business.'

Robin Bolger did not say much, but it was clear that he shared his uncle's feelings on the matter.

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Some descriptive details in this chapter were drawn from 'Flight to the Ford' in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

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