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A Healer's Tale  by Lindelea 8 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/18/2005
Hooray! The cavalry has arrived! Oh, love this!

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/5/2005
Sam and Rose must look rather unlike themselves if Woodruff can't recognise them - and I love the references to - h'mm - odour.

Good for Regi. Maybe not the most imaginative hobbit, but he keeps track of everything. Get Sam in there - with his fantasy-tree-people-cure. After all, at this point, what harm?

Save that Thain!

Author Reply: I had them quite a bit stinkier in the first draft, but it's not *that* far from Bree to Buckland...

True! What harm?

And to think someday Regi will get more than a taste of that particular medicine himself...

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/4/2005
Oh my god, there really is hope!
Being the only one (it seems), who is not familiar with the companion story, I had to read this chapter twice - just to be sure ;-)
So Sam and Rosie were away on a mission to find a remedy? And they did succeed! That's really good news.

It's so very typical of Sam to wait for the permission of Merry as gentlehobbit to let him enter first, although he's mayor now.
On the other hand Woodruff would love to welcome any sign of hope, but her experiences as a healer tell her there is no cure any more.
So, what's the remedy and most important: will it work?
I hope it will!

Please update soon!

Author Reply: Next update of Woodruff's story is scheduled for Monday, once all the kinks are ironed out, and then the next Interlude will go up on Wednesday if all goes well. Think good thoughts!

So much more will become clear on Wednesday, although there is more to come after that. So hang in there!

Thanks!

Pearl TookReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/4/2005
"I stride forward, crackling with anger, seizing the dirty stranger who is arguing with Master Merry; I swing him around. ‘You—’ I begin in my indignation. The rest of the words die on my lips as the trembling of my indignation turns to that of shock. ‘Mayor Samwise,’ I breathe. I look to the other mud-stained and rather odiferous traveller, brown as a nut, curls streaked with stronger sun than ours. ‘Mistress Rose?’"


"‘I don’t care if they are walking bushes or talking rocks,’ I say. ‘He’s breathing his last, even as we speak!’ I seize the Mayor as well, stink forgotten, and between us Reginard and I haul him into the bedroom."

So much that is so good in this chapter!!!! VWD!!!

Author Reply: Thank you! *hugs* This story has certainly been something of a challenge. Appreciate the good words.

Hai TookReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/4/2005
Hurry! Hurry! What happens next!? I'm sure I know but I'm still on pins and needles waiting for what happens next! Woodruff beingangry about strangers ruining what is suppose to be a time for family, but who weren't strangers at all. Merry wanting Sam to go first because of fear that Pippin might let go should he hear/see Merry! Yikes! And Pip is getting so close to being gone anyway! Ferdi's skeptism on "walking trees" I did like Woodruff not caring if they were "walking bushes or talking rocks" but anxious to get Sam to Pippin all the same! Oh, please me merciful and put me out of my misery!

Author Reply: Thanks for hitting the highlights! More of Woodruff's story will hopefully be posted Monday, and then the next Interlude on Wednesday if all goes well, so while it is hard to wait, at least you know what to expect!

Thanks.

EruvywethReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/4/2005
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!! It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair... (falls onto the floor shaking in pure author's misery)

Author Reply: Oh poor dear. Perhaps a cup of strong tea with plenty of sweetening? Next interlude due Wednesday, with an intervening chapter the Monday before.

Am sounding cryptic. Must be time to hit the pillow.

Thanks!

Connie B.Reviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/4/2005
Oh, they are a mess, aren't they?

Good thing Woodruff looked bfore she summarily threw Sam out.

I did find the first referrence to the Steward having no imagination confusing. It may just be that I didn't read the three paragraphs right, but it just didn't seem to make sense to me. The second time you mention it, it does, but that first time baffled me.

Thanks for the update.

Connie B.

Author Reply: Yes, they travelled rather slowly from Bree to Buckland and were anticipating bath and change of clothes and hot meal and got intercepted and rushed off to Tuckborough. But the bath and change of clothes and hot meal are right around the corner, now.

I'm sorry that bit was confusing. I'll have another look at it. It is supposed to be ironic that Reginard, the fellow who doesn't credit a thing unless he's seen it with his own eyes, would be the first to put two-and-two together, whereas Ferdi, a "fool of a Took", balks.

Thanks!

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 16 on 5/4/2005
*Whoosh!!!* *Lets out breath didn't even know I was holding!!*
*jumps up and down singing "Sam's back!! Sam's back!!"*

LOL! This is wonderful from Woodruff's POV. I *love* how she didn't even *recognize* Sam and Rose at first. And her ruminations on Merry and duty and responsibility.

Still, he and Peregrin have been closer than brothers from the younger cousin’s birth. How it must have grieved him to leave Pippin’s side; how tempted he must have been, to shirk duty, honour and responsibility. Though he wouldn’t, of course. He would not.

One of the things that's always just chilled me about this part--and I am including in "At the End of His Rope" here, was the thought of what it would have meant to Merry if he *had* lost Pip at this point, if Sam had *not* made it in time. I suspect that even Estella would not have been enough to keep him from losing his next bout with the shadow--if he even made it that far...

Author Reply: Y'know what's interesting? If Merry had shirked his duty, "just this once", because of the importance of staying by Pippin through this terrible time, then Pippin would have died. He wouldn't have had a reason to wait, and Sam wouldn't have known to hurry.

Marigold told me that it says somewhere that Merry and Pippin died within a day of each other, so your suspicion is probably true.

Thanks!

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