Friends
By Singe (singeaddams @ hotmail.com)


"Can I tell Daisy about my boar?"

"You might want to knock on her door before going in. Everyone's a bit jumpy from what Merry did."

Concern washed over Frodo's features, "What happened? Is everyone all right?"

Sam snorted, "We're fine. Merry got it in his head to tell scary stories about the Boggity-monster."

"The Boggity-monster?" Frodo chucked, "It doesn't sound half-frightening."

Sammie looked at his parents, "Can I go?"

"Yes, but be quiet. I don't want to have to check the closets again." Sam called after Sammie as he went running down the hall.

"Closets?" Frodo looked torn between disbelief and laughing.

"And under the beds."

Frodo gave into laughter, "What kind of a monster would hide under beds and in closets?"

Rosie smiled, "A Boggity-monster of course."

"Next time they get so worked up, tell them that no evil creature would dare show its face around here. Not unless it wanted to end up as a midnight snack." He smiled, flashing sharp teeth.

"I knew having monsters for kin would come in useful." Rosie quipped and laughter echoed around the kitchen again.


From 'Kin' by Sanguinary Red



Del backed hurriedly out of the doorway as Sammie barreled out of the kitchen. There was no place to hide. He saw her, froze, and stared. Del stared back. All she had wanted was a drink of water but now...this. Sammie stood in the darkened hallway as the grown-ups laughed about monsters and kin. The light from the kitchen backlit him and she could barely see his face but she could see just enough. He looked more like an owl trapped in the daylight than a monster. An owl with a broken wing. Del swallowed a dry lump in her throat. Yep. Sammie looked like a broken-winged owl in the daylight staring at a fox that was going to eat it. He was afraid and Del breathed out a very silent whoosh of reassured air. He was afraid of her. Very good.

He looked back over his shoulder at the bright kitchen and swayed towards it but Del stepped up and pinched his sleeve, stopping him. She crooked her finger at his face and began to walk back down the curving corridor. Sammie didn't follow, he was leaning towards the kitchen again. "SST!" He jumped and looked at her. Del made a walking motion with her fingers and pointed, violently, at the spot next to her feet. Sammie's shoulders slumped and he slowly came along the hall after her. Del twisted the ends of her hair. We're going to Bag End, Hope had said. We'll meet heroes, she said. You'll like them, she said. Del sighed. Why was nothing ever, ever, ever, like it seemed? Why did there always have to be a problem?

Del slipped into the first empty room she came to, Master Frodo's study as bad luck would have it, and she closed the door as soon as Sammie followed her inside. "What?!" she hissed as if she were hard of hearing. "What?!"

"What?" Sammie whispered back. "What d'you mean what? What did you see?" Del stepped in close, close enough to obviously make Sammie nervous. There were embers still burning in the fireplace and she studied him in the dim light. His eyes had been gleaming but they were fine now. He had bragged about not breaking a fang and grinned at his Mum with them but they were gone. His skin still glowed from where his mother had scrubbed it but she had missed a spot right under his chin. Del reached out and scratched it off with her thumb and the dried blood was a quarter-moon of blackness under her nail. "Del...please..." She was surprised to see him near tears. Real tears and he wasn't cold and he didn't radiate darkness and he was breathing and he was...

"Alive. Sammie, you're alive."

"Uh? I mean, yes."

"The ones that almost got me'n Hope were dead. They were wondrous scary."

"Dead?" His eyes went wide. "Real live Dead? And they almost got you? Where? When?"

"Outside of Tuckborough last year. Isengar and Hildifons Took. They didn't 'Go to sea.' They didn't 'Go on a Journey.' They stayed in the Shire and chased me and Hope all through the woods. Now..." Del tapped and rubbed his face with her fingertips and Sammie held still for it. In fact he turned his cheek towards her, like a cat wanting to be stroked. That was curious. Usually he complained. Well, usually, she had him in a headlock. "You're not like them at all. You're warm. You go out in the day. You eat and sleep and burp just like everybody else. Why is that?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?!" She poked at his mouth and bared her teeth. "Go Grrrr!"

"Grrrr!" There they were and, ooh, they were sharp. Del held a fang and gave it a wiggle as if it was loose and Sammie suddenly snapped at her hand. She jerked back with a yelp.

He blushed. "Sorry." he whispered.

"S'alright. You missed." She double-checked her hand to cover her fright. "But, really, how can you not know why?"

"Because no one knows why." a quiet voice drifted through the study door and the handle began to turn. Del clutched Sammie's shirt as her heart simply froze over. Sammie she could handle, despite him being able to throw a wild boar. He was quiet and sweet and easily shoved around by the people he liked. His 'uncle' was quite a different story. Master Frodo slowly stepped into the room and Del would have sworn that fog was louder than he was. The Mayor and the Mistress Rose were behind him, all evidently on their way to bed. The three of them were gawping with enormous, frightened eyes. Afraid? Yep. But, this time, she wasn't at all reassured. Sammie took a step back and looked at her as if to say, ooh, you're in trouble now. She had just enough time to glare at him before Master Frodo took a cautious step closer and held out a pale hand. His smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Del? Dear? Come here."

Delphinium Grubb had not survived as long as she had, ten whole years, by being trusting. "Don't you 'Dear' me." She backed away. The Mayor and the Mistress stepped in, then, and...the door...they closed the door...they LOCKED THE DOOR!!

"All right, darling, then. We have to have a talk." Master Frodo came nearer and he made no sound, no sound at all, and the door was still closed and still locked. Locked.

"HHHHOOOOOPE!!!!!" Everyone in the room cringed back and Del was out the window and running through the garden towards the Grubb's guest room before even she knew what was happening. "HOPE! HOPE! RUN! HOPE! BAD! VERY BAD! RUN!" She tore through the rose bushes that bordered the entire smial and pounded on her sister's window with the flat of her hand. "HOPE! RUN! RUNRUNRUHHHAAIGH!!" A hideously strong hand clamped over her mouth and she was lifted into the air just as Hope Grubb opened her window.

"Hope, please don't worry...I can explain." Master Frodo began while Hope watched him with her eyes furiously wide. Del saw the Mayor and the Mistress run into the guest room and wrenched her mouth free.

"BEHIND YOU!!"

Hope turned and Del saw the Mayor gently but firmly catch her arms. That was enough for Hope. "GET OFF!" She kicked him, yanked her arms free, and backhanded the Mistress Rose. They staggered back, obviously shocked that the gentle scholar could and would do such a thing. That mistake had been made before by others and Del gave a silent cheer. "DEL!" Hope shouted and jumped out of the round window. "Put my sister down!" She charged Frodo.

He ducked and his hold on Del loosened. "Miss Grubb, please! Wait!"

"Hope! Don't touch him! He's like Hildifons! Isengar! Only not dead!" Frodo had her only by the back of her nightgown now so Del threw her arms up and slid completely out of it. She landed and began to run in her bare skin. "C'mon, Hope!" The entire smial had been roused now and the older children were out in the garden with their eyes bulging and their mouths open. Frodo-lad was there and he tackled Hope around the waist. "NO!" Del turned back and broke his nose. He let go and Hope took off again, frantically motioning for Del to follow.

Suddenly, Sammie was running beside them and he was shouting as loud as he could, "STOP! STOP! PLEASE!"

"NO! GO AWAY!" Del would have turned and hit him but Hope wouldn't allow it. If they could only get off the hill...

The Mayor and the Mistress clambered out of the window to join the fray. Then Master Frodo was in front of Del as if he had risen directly out of the ground and she didn't have time to stop. She ran right into his arms. His eyes were gleaming red again and Hope gasped in horror. Then she was tripped up by the Mayor, himself, and went down. "HILDIFONS! ISENGAR!" Del screamed. She fought and clawed and bit and Master Frodo was begging her please, please calm down. Both sisters were dragged back into Bag End and Frodo had to pry Del's hands off every obstacle she could grab. She was terrified and thoroughly disgusted with herself. Captured and recaptured. Pathetic. "YOU'LL BE SORRY!"

"My dear, we're already sorry." He set her on her feet and took her by the arm. She kicked at him.

"DON'T YOU..."

"'Dear' you, yes, I know." All the Gardners, even the littlest ones, had gathered in the dining room and they were all in their nightshirts, with their hair a tousled mess and sleep in their eyes, and they were all frightened. Del bellowed at them and they shrank back. It gave her, at least, a little satisfaction. Master Frodo wasn't easing up at all and her arm was going numb.

"By dose iz bleedink!" Frodo-lad was astonished. "They zeemed zo nize when they first god here!" He complained and Del called him every name for 'pansy' she could think of. Hope was on the floor, clawing it, and the Mistress Rose, Elanor, Merry and Pippin were sitting on her. Sammie was still shouting for Del's attention. Tolman was screaming. Elanor was biting her nails to the quick and breathlessly trying to reassure her brothers, her mother and Hope all at once. Del was looking about for something horribly sharp to poke into any convenient Gardner's eye.

"PLEASE!" Master Frodo cried and the bedlam ended. "Miss Grubb...and Miss Grubb. Please, listen to me." Del snarled at him.

"You listen to ME." Hope's smothered voice rose up from the floor. "We have friends. We have powerful friends and they'll notice if we go missing. You kill us and they'll kill you. They'll kill all of you."

Elanor blanched. "Hope! No!"

"YES!" Del shouted, triumphant. "We turn up dead and you'll get it!"

Elanor turned to Del and tears poured down her horrified face. "We'd never kill you! We'd never hurt you! Tell her, Fo!"

"Let Hope up." Merry, Pippin, the Mistress Rose and Elanor cautiously moved aside. Hope got up, reached out, and yanked Del away from Master Frodo. Del glared around her. Not good. This was not good. They were hideously outnumbered and completely surrounded. All these Gardners...Mistress Rose really should learn to say No every once in a while. Del tried to ignore her hammering heart and glowered at Sammie again. This is all your fault. Sammie sobbed.

"Please listen." Master Frodo began. "We won't kill you. We won't even scratch you. You can go."

"Oh, just like that?" Del scoffed. "Mister Half-Dead?"

Master Frodo turned his large, sad eyes on her. He appeared to be so incredibly weary. Sammie sidled close and threw his arms around him. Master Frodo ran a gentle hand through the boy's hair. Del realized that she was clinging to her sister exactly as Sammie was clinging to Master Frodo. It made her feel...strange. Almost...guilty.

His quiet voice continued, "Yes, just like that. You're free to go. I don't care that you've found us out. Not to put too fine a point on it but no one will believe you. Two lone orphan girls' word against ours? The Mayor? The Ringbearer? No." He shook his head. "No. We're scandalous. Always good for an interesting gossip but no one will believe for a moment that we're monsters. We have nothing to fear from you." Del narrowed her eyes at him. He was reassuring the children, she knew, but if she could have reached him she would have slapped him. "As for your 'powerful friends,' well..." His lips curled back from his suddenly pointed teeth and his eyes blazed a horrible scarlet. "Let's just say I'm not afraid of them either."

Del took a step towards him and her fists were clenched. "You should be."

Something huge and black crashed through the dining room window. Sharp glass flew everywhere and the children ducked and screamed. Master Frodo threw Sammie behind him. The thing landed with a nasty crunch at Del's feet and she just managed not to jump back. It was an enormous, dead pig. She realized it was Sammie's boar, stiff and broken and covered in dried blood. Del looked up in time to enjoy the shock spreading over Master Frodo's face as he stared at the broken window. "SST!" He turned to her and she smiled her bestest, sweetest little smile at him. "You should be very afraid." She repeated and Hope slapped her on the back and gave out a nervous scream of laughter. Del laughed, too. Oh, the relief. Oh, everything was fine, now...

"OY!" Shouted a raucous voice from the garden. "May we join the party?"

"YES!" Del and Hope cried together. "Come in! Come in!"

"NO!" the Mayor screamed but it was too late. A cold pillar of mist was forming in the middle of the dining room. "Rose! Get the children out!" The Mistress Rose grabbed up Tolman and turned for the hall but another amorphous cloud blocked her way. The baby shrieked and buried his head in her chest. "NO!" The lanterns guttered and most of them went out. There was a strange sound like the rush of wings, a fell terror, and eyes, terrible, cold eyes and two forms emerged from the darkness, solid and whole. One was standing full on the dining room table and the other blocked the Gardner's escape into the hall. They were cold. Furniture was overturned and dishes in the ornate cupboard fell with a crash as the children all separated, screeching, into three clutching, panicked clumps around each adult. They shivered and cried. Del could feel the chill on her skin and gave a little leap of joy.

The figure on the table, all white skin, green eyes and dead, dead, dead, knelt and looked at her. "Now, Del, y'wild thing you, what're you doin' runnin' around in just your undershorts?" His wide, red mouth smiled. "You'll catch yer death."

"Hildy!" Del clapped her hands and scrambled up on the table. He knelt and she threw her arms around him. It was always like hugging an ice block but she never minded. "Hildifons! That was fast!" She was suddenly surrounded by gasps of shock and she enjoyed the Gardner reaction very much. This'll teach them to lock doors and chase people.

Hildifons laughed. "We were in the neighborhood. We 'eard the worst squealin' noise tonight and went to have a look. Saw that one..." Hildifons pointed a thumb at Sammie who was clinging to Master Frodo with all of his strength. "...bring a bloody great pig down. Good job, lad, by the way. And we were intrigued! Weren't we, Izzy?"

"Yeh." Isengar answered from his post at the opposite end of the room. His arms were crossed and he slouched insolently against the doorframe. "Strangest thing we ever saw. And that's sayin' a lot." He suddenly noticed Elanor and grinned at her. She hid her face behind her Mum. "But why did you leave the brute behind? A family this big needs all the meat it can get. We know! So we, very kindly, brought it along."

"Delllll!" Sammie gasped. "You said they tried to get you! You said they chased you all through the woods!"

"We did!" Hildy answered and pinched Del's cheek. "But they were so cuuuute! We let them go. For now. They're wonderful girls." Del mussed his gleaming hair affectionately. "Now, then..." Hildifons stood and turned to look down at Master Frodo and a very strange wind circled throughout the round room, causing the coals in the fireplace to blaze brightly. Hildifon's cloak billowed. Del didn't try to hide the smugness or the admiration on her face and she took and held his cold hand. "What's all this, eh?"

Master Frodo's hair was blowing and his voice was low when it finally came. "We weren't going to hurt them. We were letting them go..."

"Were you? Let's see. Hold very still, Mister Half-Dead, y'counterfeit pretender, you." Hildifon's eyes reflected the light of the fire and he became still as he fixed his attention fully on Master Frodo. "Let the Real Thing take a look."

Frodo's hands went to his face. "Wait, I can explain...ssstop. Stop." Sammie stared up at his uncle and reached for him. Master Frodo gently thrust him back into his sister, Daisy's, arms and began to back away. "I..."

"LET HIM GO!" Elanor was up. She shook off Prim and Ruby and charged the dining table armed with nothing and dressed in only a white nightdress. "Let him go!" Fro was at her heels and then Ham leapt up, too.

"Ellie, get back!" Frodo shouted. She stopped, surprised, and shifted her attention from him to Hildifons and back again. Her brothers flanked her, waiting. Frodo's words were slurred but steady. "Get back. Let him. Don't anyone move."

"But..." Elanor began to protest.

"No, get back. And don't move." Del wondered who was talking, Master Frodo or Hildifons? She decided it didn't matter. Elanor wavered and then grabbed her brothers and moved to the wall. Master Frodo's family huddled together and didn't try to resist again. There was a long, long pause as he appeared to fall asleep. Hildifons' eyes were closed.

Then Frodo spoke and he sounded far-away and tired. "Gandalf. I know what I must do but I'm afraid to do it." He began to slowly retreat again and his back hit the wall with force enough to make the portraits crooked. Del nodded understandingly. Hildy was drawing the whole tale out of Master Frodo's head in the space of a minute. Sounded like he was starting from the very beginning and the whole process did tend to hurt, she knew. She knew very well. Master Frodo clutched his shoulder. "I don't know what's wrong with me, Sam. Ever since the Witch King's blade I've been so very thirsty. No water or wine satisfies me and...I can see the heat rising from your skin."

"Oho." Izzy commented. The Mayor's eyes welled.

Master Frodo shook his head violently and clawed at his temples. Elanor moaned with pain, watching him, and the Mistress Rose held the little ones around her even tighter. Sammie was crying again and Del felt that strange stab of guilt once more. "I'm a monster, Rose, I'll understand if you say no. But, please, don't. I love you. I love you so much. That, at least, hasn't changed..." Master Frodo's red eyes suddenly opened wide but they were unseeing. "I have a son?" he whispered with a heartbreaking disbelief and joy. Then he collapsed to the floor. Sammie broke free of Daisy and put his arms around him. "Miss Grubb, let me explain..." Del couldn't stand it any more and looked away.

"Hildy?" She whispered and gave his hand a squeeze. He started and smiled down at her. His eyes were tired and sad. And old. He picked her up and, kissing her with icy lips, jumped off the table. He handed her over to Hope and her sister tried to warm her chilled arms.

"Now, that was an interestin' story." Hildy pulled out a chair and sat down. He looked at Sammie and his expression was indecipherable. "A home, a wife, a husband, even, and a son. A son. Ehhhh, some monster." He bent his head back and stared up at the ceiling.

Izzy took that as a cue to relax hostilities and stopped blocking the door. He walked calmly across the room, stepping over cringing children, and sat on his brother's right at the table. Del and Hope joined them on Hildy's left as Master Frodo slowly got up, steadying himself with a hand on Sammie's shoulder. His eyes were back to normal and he studied Hildifons with a fearful sort of exhaustion. Hildy beckoned him over. "Come sit down and have a nice little chat with us." Master Frodo considered the invitation for quite a while, rubbing his face, before he nodded and approached.

Frodo gestured at the Mayor and the two of them slowly sat on the other side of the table, directly opposite the Tooks. The Mistress Rose herded her children, Sammie and the older ones included, out of the dining room and into the master bedroom. Del could dimly hear her tell them all to lock the door and be very quiet. Then she came back and everyone watched her as she stepped carefully to avoid the broken glass on the floor. Then she defiantly pulled out a chair directly next to Isengar and sat down. He made a kissy face at her and Del almost giggled. She hid a shiver instead. It was a cool night and the window was broken. Her flannel nightgown was still in the garden somewhere. Hildy and Izzy weren't helping things at all. But she was TOUGH; she'd never show she was cold. A finely embroidered piece of green cloth hit her hands and she startled. It was the Mayor's waistcoat. She cautiously glanced at him. He motioned for her to put it on with a grass-stained hand. She looked at Hildifons. He nodded. She threw it around herself and buttoned the copper buttons. Much, much better.

Hildy stood. "This first meeting of the Secret Monsters of the Shire, Cards and Supper Club is called to order." He sat. "Now. First of all, I'm Hildifons Took. This is my little brother, Isengar."

"Evenin' folks." Izzy looked expectantly at the Mayor.

"Euhr...hello." He finally said and Izzy collapsed with laughter. The Mistress Rose looked at him with distaste.

Hildy continued. "We're two of the Old Took's twelve children. I decided to go off on a journey in my misspent youth and came back like this, courtesy of Thuringwethil, the Woman of Secret Shadow. One of Sauron's dearies." Frodo's fist clenched and Hildy gave him a small salute. "Thanks are in order for what you did, Ringbearer. Later. Long story made short, she died horribly and I was free to come home. Isengar was the only one who accepted me. So, when he was old and about to breathe his last, I brought him into the fun with me. That was over two hundred years ago." Hildifons picked up a silver candleholder. "And in all that time the only people who took to me, to us, as easily were these two." He pointed at the Grubbs. "Even after we frightened the livin'spit out of them."

"We're so very handsome and charmin', you see." Isengar explained with a belch and Del and Hope grinned. Hildifons cast a bright eye on Master Frodo and set the candleholder down again. Suddenly the metal began to twist as if unseen hands were bending it and, gouging the table, it collapsed, squashed into a mass of metal. The Mayor gasped. The Mistress covered her mouth with both her hands. Master Frodo's breathing began to pick up.

"We're the 'powerful friends' you've heard tell about. And, believe me, we're not the only ones." Hildifons continued. Then he sat back and patted Hope on the arm to get her attention though he continued to direct his comments at Frodo. "But I've been inside your head, Frodo, and you're not a bad sort. Neither are you two." He pointed to the Mayor and the Mistress. "So we're going to have Peace. Agreed?"

Master Frodo looked at the silver discus that used to be a fine candelabra. "Agreed." He whispered.

"Agreed." mumbled the Mayor and he reached across the table to take his wife's hand.

"Agreed." she said.

"Girls?" Hildy prompted.

"Agreed." Hope avowed and Del nodded. Yes, peace was a good thing.

"Good, then. A couple more things before we go...Del. Delphinium. Darlin' Del. You shouldn't have panicked." She gasped and started to protest but Hildy held up a finger and she quieted. "There you were with your hand in Sammie's mouth with no problems at all but as soon as Himself here opens the door you go streakin', literally, through the garden. Screamin' your fool head off."

Del crossed her arms and stared straight ahead. Oh, it's always her fault. Fine. Just fine.

"I didn't say it was your fault." Hildy said. Del blinked. It was always disconcerting when Hildy answered her thoughts instead of her words. "The very wise sayin' goes 'the apple don't fall too far from the tree.' If you thought Sammie was alright then it's likely his Dad's alright, too." Del squirmed. True. She had always gotten a sense of a family by how the children behaved. Sammie was a doll. A dear. Quiet and soft and sweet and he always knew what she was talking about. And he was very easy to look at. Hildy and Izzy laughed and Del's face burned. They took mercy on her and didn't explain the joke.

"Well, I got scared." She explained. "They were all in the door and I couldn't get past them and then they LOCKED it. I couldn't get to Hope." Would she have to apologize? She hoped not.

Hildy nodded. "It's your fault." he continued, pointing at Master Frodo.

"What?"

"What did you mean jumping into the room like that? Like some kinda..." he smiled. "Boggity Monster, just when your boy was making a good friend?"

"Er." Master Frodo ran his fingers along the grain of the wood in the table. "I was afraid as well. I didn't know what she was going to do. Or say. I didn't..." he sighed. "I didn't want her to hurt Sammie's feelings. And I was afraid, despite all the awful things that I said to them, I was truly afraid that they'd turn the town against us if they told our secret."

"Children are canny. They keep secrets. You wouldn't believe what those two know." Del tried to look modest. Hope was smiling grimly. "They'll keep your secret, too. Trust them. We do. Now, then, Hope's afraid that she's going to lose her position with the library. Is she, Mayor?"

"Eh? No. Not a bit." the Mayor assured Hope. Hope sighed with relief. Del wondered how a person could lose a bit of a position.

"She can stay and continue her research?"

"Yes." Frodo answered immediately. "They can stay as long as they like."

"You won't eat 'em?" Hildy asked him.

"NO!" Master Frodo exclaimed.

Hildy turned to Hope. "You won't leave a stake in his heart?"

She blinked. "No."

Hildy smiled. "Lovely. I now pronounce you man and wife."

"Man?!"

"Figure of speech. This meeting is adjourned. Let's go, Izzy. Being good makes me hungry."

"I get the pretty one!" Isengar leered in the direction of the bedrooms.

"No, you DON'T!" Mistress Rose snarled and, with a yelp and a flash of shadow, Izzy was gone.

Hildy stood and stretched, his arms reaching towards the ceiling and suddenly his fingers sported the most wicked claws Del had ever seen. They were long and black and thrilling. Hildy slowly lowered his hands and flicked them at Master Frodo. "And it need not be said that there are monsters...and then there are monsters, eh?" Master Frodo nodded, his face carefully neutral at the implied threat. "Take care of me girls. Goodbye."

Frodo stood. "Wait...dont leave yet. We have so much to talk about."

"Aye, we do. But we have time to talk later." Hildifons grimly smiled. "All the time in the world." He leaned over and kissed Del goodbye. "Don't be good."

"I won't." she promised.

Hildy kissed Hope, then he quick-stepped over and gave a swift lick to the Mistress Rose's cheek. She and the Mayor were hard put to disguise their disgust. Then Hildifons dissolved into mist and disappeared as a cold blast of air took out the remaining lanterns. All was dark. Master Frodo put his head on the table.


Continued Here

~

Pretty Good Year