"By All the Signs" by Tialys

Archeologists discover the graves of two knights and call in an unusual historian to elaborate on their identities. Written for Marigold’s Challenge #6.

Dr. Ethan Talbot, chief archeologist of plot area nine, could not help but grin as he scrambled down into one of the smaller excavation pits surrounding his area. Little attention had been paid to this particular site, it being such a distance from all the other recent discoveries, and few men had even been working at it when the discovery was made.

Talbot was a tall, thin man, nervous for his work as this was his first real assignment – as a chief archeologist at least. He had short, curly hair, sharp, dark eyes and a quick smile.

Reaching the bottom, Talbot squeezed past the retreating group of workers to closer examine their find. Embedded in the hardened ground were two smooth tablets of marble stone, each with carvings splayed across their surfaces, though the exact patterns were covered by layers of dust and dirt at the present.

Begging a brush from a nearby worker, Talbot carefully set himself to removing the excess dust. Pausing abruptly in his work, he stared unblinkingly at the engravings for a moment before finally calling out, "Get Dr. Marks! Quick!"

In moments, senior archeologist Dr. Abe Marks was kneeling beside Dr. Talbot, breathlessly running his fingers over the sharp, bold letters engraved into the twin stones. In other plot areas, numerous slabs such as these had been discovered and Talbot could not understand the sudden interest in his similar discovery.

"Dr. Marks --" He began, but was cut off by a jittery wave of the older doctor’s hand.

"Shush!" Marks hissed, still running his fingers reverently over the carvings. "Look at them..."

In the stone on the left was carved the simple inscription:

SIR MERIADOC BRANDYBUCK

1382 – 1489

The one on the right bore, in a similar text:

SIR PEREGRIN TOOK

1390 – 1489

"Who were they?" Talbot whispered, hardly daring to speak in a normal voice lest he spoil the aura surrounding the plot.

Marks leaned back on his heels, running a dirt-layered hand through his unkempt hair and exhaling loudly. "Well, lad," he murmured, "every other grave like this we uncovered were the graves of kings. Their names were found in those parchments from the third area, you remember."

Talbot nodded. "So these two were kings?"

"Well," Marks paused here, leaning forward to re-inspect the lettering, though his previous enthusiasm seemed spent. "By all the signs we’ve found they would be, wouldn’t they?"

A squeaky little laugh sounded from above the pit and Talbot craned his head for a glimpse of the source of the sound. Moments later, the round face of a grinning little man appeared over the edge of the excavation pit. The little man seemed exceptionally short, even from down in the pit. He had thick, curly hair that fell over his ears and wore large, clunky boots. His eyes twinkled brightly from under the brim of a large, shapeless hat and he was grinning mischievously down at the two doctors, the laugh still glowing in his face. "And by all the signs I can see," he giggled, "you know nothing about your own finds, doctor!"

"Ah," Marks exclaimed, standing and brushing is clothing off as best as he could, "There you are! Dr. Talbot, this is --" but here he paused, squinting up at the little man. "Well, sir, I’m afraid I don’t know your name. You are the historian, are you not?"

"Aye," the little man called in a creaky voice, "that I am and – though I couldn’t less care what you call me – you can address me as Reggie."

"And you can tell us about these men?" Talbot pressed, excitement building in him seemingly without a reasonable cause.

"Oh," Reggie chuckled again, "these weren’t men, lad. Thank the stars for that."

With a large amount of help from the two doctors, Reggie’s lack of height making his decent into the excavation pit difficult, the historian was soon kneeling before the gravestones, muttering low under his breath as he traced the names with his finger. His inspection finished, Reggie sat back in the dirt and crossed his legs, leaning comfortably against the rising dirt walls of the pit and sighing contently.

"Never thought I’d see them." He murmured, more to himself than to the doctors, and closed his eyes in what appeared to be a nap!

"Sir?" Talbot urged, patience running low, curiosity high.

"Don’t rush him, boy!" Marks rebuked before kneeling before the little man and questioning himself, "Who were they?" Talbot rolled his eyes.

"They?!" Reggie squeaked, awakening from his daydreaming. "I’ll tell you who they were!" And here he stood, stretching himself to his full height – minimal as it was – and lifting his head in the pride of recitation. "They, as you can tell by reading, were sirs Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, hobbits of the Shire! That one," he pointed to the stone on the left, Meriadoc’s, "was a true knight of Rohan. He assisted in the final defeat of the most powerful servant evil has ever had! Stabbed it in the leg, he did, though it did a number on his arm. But don’t worry!" He said, mistaking the disbelieving looks on the doctors’ faces for looks of wonder and concern. "He pulled through. Resilient fellow, just like his companion. Now he," and his hand shifted to the adjoining slab to the right, Peregrin’s, "was a guard of the citadel in Gondor. Oh, but he had more than an arm to worry about after all was done! Killed a troll, he did, but it fell right on him. He would have been dead right fast if he hadn’t been found. Luckily there was some of him visible beneath that great beast, eh? Heroes, they are. Yes, sir. Quite an amazing find you have."

By the time he was done, Reggie’s chest was puffed out beyond reckoning and his head was raised to the sky in pride. But his great moment cracked and faded at the bursts of laughter from both doctors, who were soon sitting down to support their aching ribs.

"My good sir," Marks struggled through his chuckles, "we asked for a historian, not a storyteller!"

Reggie’s face clouded and he watched in stony silence as the doctors pulled themselves out of the pit, their laughs finally faded as they walked away, still whispering and laughing to each other about ‘hobbits’ and ‘children’s tales’.

With a drawn out sigh of frustration, Reggie slumped to the ground in-between the two stones and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. Fingers of one hand absently tracing the name beside him, he reached down with his other hand to pull off his enormous boots, revealing his abnormally large feet with even more unusual amounts of thick curly hair across their tops.

Crossing his arms before his chest, Reggie smiled happily, a far-off gleam in his eye, and began to sing softly to himself.

"The road goes ever on and on..."

May 31, 2004