Everyone else called her Elanor the Fair, but Uncle Frodo called her Elanor the Brave. -From West of the Moon

Elanor the Brave

“Oh, I see, Pip…” Merry said, rolling his eyes towards his wife, Estella, at Pippin’s denseness. Pippin saw her shake her head at his own wife, Diamond, grinning, and began to feel downright irritated. “…Mirkwood’s spiders just happened to cross several rivers, mountain ranges and endless wastelands on their OWN? They wandered over here by themselves? They would never have survived…”

“I’m telling you, with Legolas’ people converting Mirkwood back into the Greenwood the spiders and other nasty dark things that were living in there are being squeezed out…” Pippin’s hands clutched his pony’s reins tightly. Merry was so sure he knew everything he was headed the right way for a Took foot up his…

“It only takes one pregnant female to establish a colony, Pip!” Merry pointed out, raising a sanctimonious finger in the air. “Someone brought the spiders in…”

Pippin raised a finger, too, a rude one. “Who? The same one who brought the trolls into the Westmarch, then? Eh? I swear, with all the fighting we’ve been doing we might as well resign as Captains of the Bounders and take up being Rangers.” Bag End was finally coming into view and Pippin was heartily looking forward to ending the argument that had gone on since the four of them had set out that morning. “Why can’t you admit you’re wrong?”

“Because, I’m not.”

“Yes, y’are.”

“Not.”

“Are.”

“I am NOT, you thick Took!”

“You ARE, you Bleating Brandybuck!” Stel and Dinny were laughing again. Pippin looked ahead and finally saw the round door of Bag End clearly. To his surprise, eleven-year-old Elanor was waiting for them at the gate to the garden. He could just make out her face, staring hungrily out at them. She swung the gate open and walked stiffly down the road, evidently to head them off. Pippin became uneasy. He held up a hand to forestall any more name calling on Merry’s part and pointed at Elanor. The small party became quiet. Elanor’s movements were too controlled, too stiff, her blonde ringlets were in a snarl and she had…Pippin’s heart stopped as Elanor came closer…she had blood on her hands and on her dress. He jumped off his pony and strode forward, his arms held out.

Elanor did not rush into them. She had evidently decided to be adult with her favorite uncle and her voice was unnaturally high and polite. “Good morning.” She clasped her hands behind her back.

Pippin heard Merry, Stel and Dinny come up behind him as he bent his knee to look the little girl in the eye. He put a hand on her shoulder, noticing her muscles were strung tight as a bow and her face was pale and stained with tears. “Morning, Elly-elle. Where’re your folks?”

“Mum and Dad went to the market. They said they’d be back in just under an hour…and…we’d be fine…” Elanor looked over at her home and Pippin noticed that all of the Gardner children were huddled against the fence and gazing out at them like miserable little curly-headed animals.

“Where’s your Uncle Frodo?”

Elanor’s face twisted with what Pippin could only identify as a sort of…heartbreak. “He’s inside. He’s sick. He grabbed Little Pip and told him he couldn’t have ‘it.’ I said Pip doesn’t want ‘it’ and to let go but he wouldn’t and Pip got scared and started screaming and I screamed and pickedupavaseandcrackedUncleFrodo’sheadwideopen.” She sucked in a great gasp of Autumn air. “And he let go.” Her mouth clamped closed again.

“I just bet he did.” Pippin looked up at the others. Dinny and Stel were staring down at Elanor with horror and Merry’s face was blank and pale as he studied the smial, obviously trying to see through the door to Frodo inside. “Is Pip or anyone else hurt?”

“No, he just got scared. My hand got cut…”

Dinny began to twist the edge of her traveling cloak. “Oh. Oh, Rose is going to be hysterical about this.”

“Rose?” Stel snapped. “How do you think Sam is going to feel? You know how protective he is. He’ll simply go mad!”

“I didn’t hit him that hard.” Elanor mumbled, her eyes darting from face to face. “”And I cut…I cut my hand…”

Merry turned to answer the wives. “What about Frodo? When he comes back to himself how do you think he’ll feel? If Elly didn’t kill him, that is. We have to be ready for Sam and Rose. You two go herd up the others…” Stel and Dinny broke away and made a beeline for the Gardner children. Little Pip held up his arms and Stel possessively scooped him up. Merry turned to Pippin. “I’m sure Bag End is a disaster and it might lessen the strife if we cleaned things up a bit. We’ll do that. Come on, Elly…”

“YOU DO IT!!” Elanor exploded. Pippin rocked back onto his heels and Merry gaped down at her. “YOU DO IT! I’M NOT GOING BACK INSIDE! I’M NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN!” Her face was a perfect mask of scarlet rage and she swallowed a sob so violent she choked on it. Coughing, she turned her back to her uncles and began to run.

“Right, Merry! You do it!” Pippin shouted. Elanor halted and looked back, her fists kneading her face. Merry turned to Pippin in shock.

“What? I…what?” Pippin poked Merry in the chest and Estella and Diamond, covered in children, turned to watch, amazed.

“You think you know everything!” Pippin shouted, loud enough for all of Bag Hill to hear. “You remind me of Farmer Grubb. Remember? When his pony kicked you in the chest he blessed you out for hurting its hoof.” Pippin leaned close and slowly closed one eye at Merry so Elanor wouldn’t see. “Ellie’s been through the mill and you’re worried about Frodo? HUMPH!!”

Merry began to stammer apologies at Elanor who was still inching away, backwards. “I’M LEAVING, TOO!” Pippin finished. His cloak billowing in wrath he strode over to Elanor and motioned for her to keep going. She took off and Pippin loped along behind her. Unable to resist he shouted “AND I’M RIGHT ABOUT THE SPIDERS!” over his shoulder. Merry watched them go, his hand on his mouth.

Elanor ran and ran through the countryside and Pippin, keeping just behind her, flinched every time she stumbled or tore through briars without noticing. He listened to her panting, coughing and snarling the occasional word or phrase that he couldn’t believe she learned at Bag End and knew the end was near when she began to clutch her side as they reached the offshoot stream of the Brandywine River known as The Water. Sure enough, almost without slowing, Elanor made a militaristic about-face and threw herself at Pippin’s legs, at last, practically knocking him over.

Recovering, Pippin hauled her up into a bear hug, wrapping his traveling cloak around them both as he wandered down to a shady oak tree off the bank of the stream. He sat down and held her on his lap as she sobbed, cocooned in the warm wool and the security of his arms. Elanor was scratched, bloody, sweaty and miserable and Pippin would rather take on an army of trolls (again) than see her so defeated.

The Autumn wind, smelling of burning leaves and the approaching cold winter, cooled them and Elanor’s sobs slowly began to ease. As the shadows of the oak, the cattails and the meadow grass began to lengthen she held still and Pippin rested his chin on the blonde rats-nest that had been her hair. Finally, he spoke. “Where are we goin’?”

“Mirkwood.” She answered, somewhat muffled, but with absolute certainty.

“Now, why Mirkwood?”

“I wanna meet Leg’less.”

“Ah. All right, then.” Pippin watched the fluff from the stream’s cattails go floating past on the silky breeze and wished he could take Elanor and follow them right out of this world where nothing stays right. “Of course, if you want to be patient, Mirkwood will come to you. We’ve already got an invasion of spiders to worry about and I don’t doubt that a host of black squirrels, black butterflies, creepy trees and pretty elves are on their way, too. You’ll like Legolas and all his kin. We can bed them down in the root cellar, I suppose…”

Suddenly broadsided with something new to think about, as Pippin intended, Elanor blinked in shock. “Invasion of bad spiders? Like the one that tried to eat Dad and…” Elanor stopped. She didn’t even want to say the name. Pippin said it for her.

“And Frodo, yes. Well, not quite. These spiders are nowhere near as big and evil as Shelob but they’re bigger than boarhounds and twice as hard to kill. A couple of them caught me by surprise on the edge of the Old Forest and it took forever for them to go down.”

Elanor looked up at him, her eyes huge. “Did you kill them with your sword?”

“With my TEETH!” Pippin pulled his patented Grim Warrior Face and Elanor gave a choked giggle, despite herself. He smiled. Then Pippin picked up her hand and uncurled her fingers to see what damage had been done. It was a good cut, clean and deep, but the bleeding had stopped. She might not need stitches but she would certainly have a thin scar for the rest of her life. He sighed and kissed her palm to make it better and Elanor’s head collapsed against his chest again. She knuckled her eyes.

“We came by today to get Samwise the Slayer of Shelob to help us rout the nasty things as soon as we get organized. Since Frodo knows which end to hold a sword we were going to enlist him, too, but…”

“Mum and Dad are going to kill me…”

“Nah, they’re not…”

“Yes, they ARE. Aunt Stel and Dinny said they were going to be hysterical and…and go mad…’cause of what I did…”

“Oh, no, Elly.” Pippin held her tighter. “Because of what Frodo did. Scaring and grabbing their children…they just might finish the job you started. If Frodo doesn’t finish himself first.” Pippin’s voice faded away as he pondered the truth of what he said. There was no room in a family for someone or something that was a danger to children.

Goodbye, Frodo.

Pippin groaned almost imperceptibly. No, no, no. After all that his cousin had done for the world, for the Shire, for Elly-elle herself…all that he had suffered…to have it end like this. But not only for his service to Middle Earth was Frodo beloved by his family and friends…he would be most wretchedly missed.

“I have to go away.” Elanor sobbed.

“Aw, love…y’know we’re headed the wrong way for Mirkwood? If we keep to The Water we’re going to wind up in Rushock Bog. That’s a rotten place, the blood drinkin’ Mewlips live there…” Elanor was crying again and Pippin became silent as he rocked her and let her get it all out.

The sky began to turn gold and the two of them watched the beauty of the sunset together. Pippin thought how strange it was that such loveliness could exist without the slightest regard for people who were hurting. It was almost disrespectful. Finally, Elanor tried to explain herself. “If I leave, then Fo can stay…he was sick, he didn’t know what he was doing.” She rubbed her face on Pippin’s sleeve. “He…hedidn’tevenknowwhowewere.”

“You don’t want him to leave, then?” She shook her head. “You’ll miss him?” She nodded. “You’ll miss him even more if you leave. If you leave I’ll go, too. All of Bag End will miss you and go chasing after you along with all the folks of Tookborough and the Buckland who will be chasing after me. The Shire will be deserted and the poor spiders won’t have anyone to eat.” Elanor sniffed. “You don’t want to starve the poor things?” She shook her head. “And think of the SCANDAL!”

“The scandal?”

“The son of the Thain and the Mayor’s daughter running off together?” Pippin put a hand over his mouth in exaggerated horror and Elanor smiled.

“Aunt Dinny would kill me.” She whispered.

“So would your Uncle Merry. And Aunt Stel. And Farmer Grubb’s wife. But that last is our little secret, all right?” Elanor snorted with laughter and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Pippin stood and set her on the ground. She still looked deflated but her sadness only emphasized what a very pretty child she was and Pippin suddenly realized that she was going to be beautiful. Give her a few more years and Pippin would fear for all the Gentlehobbits of her generation. If it came right down to it, he would fear for himself.

“Are we going back then?” he gently prompted. Elanor squared her shoulders and nodded. “Good girl.”

A doubtful look appeared on her face at that. “What’s going to happen, Uncle Pip?” she asked, hopelessly.

He rubbed his chin with his forefinger and thought for a moment. He decided to be absolutely honest for her sake and his own. “I think Frodo is going to be given a second chance. If we can keep him from leaving on his own then life will go on as it always has. But if he ever so much as scratches any of you again…then that’s it.” He spread his hands in a gesture of denial. “Goodbye, Frodo.” Elanor flinched but Pippin could see her acceptance of his judgment. There was no room in a family for a dangerous thing. “C’mon. Let’s get cleaned up and then we’ll go have dinner and an ale at the Green Dragon while the fireworks go off at Bag End.” Pippin’s eyes lit up with anticipation at the thought of the fireworks that would explode if he were to bring Elanor home drunk. He would be killed. Should be fun! Well, it would certainly give everyone something else to dwell on besides Frodo.

“I’m too young for ale.” Elanor protested. Pippin picked her up and without any warning jumped into the stream with her. She surfaced, sputtering, and Pippin laughed at her shocked dog paddles. He hauled her back out and wiped her face and bloody hands with the edge of his wet cloak. “You’re awful!” She decided. Then she started to giggle in earnest.

“You have no idea.” He took her hand and they began to slosh back towards Hobbiton. “You know what, Elly?”

“What?”

“You’re quite the warrior. You did what Sauron, Nine Nazgul, Gollum, Saruman, Shelob, the Balrog and countless orcs and trolls couldn’t. You took out the Ringbearer.”

Elanor walked along and pondered this. “Well…” she finally said. “I was upset.”

~

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