Disclaimers: I own nothing Tolkien, and I promise to put his world back safely when I’m done with it.

All Hallow’s Eve

By Elendiari

   It was a dark and stormy night. Candles had been lit all through the Great Smials, and mammas and aunties were giving everyone spiced apple cider. Pippin was sitting in the library with a huge group of cousins and sisters, listening to his grandfather tell spooky stories.  Grandfather really could tell stories quite well. Almost as well as Cousin Bilbo, for that matter.

     “Despite the gammer’s warnings, Ferdinas tiptoed to the window and looked in. There, stirring a huge pot of a bubbling purple mixture, was the Witch. As he watched, Ferdinas felt something come up behind him. Heart pounding, he turned around, and- ARGH!!!!”

    Grandfather lunged at the children, making a gruesome face, and they all screamed. Pippin dove into Pearl’s lap, and Merry clutched her arm. Merry was visiting for the holiday, and didn’t want to be thought a coward. He was, though, quite unused to Grandfather’s stories.

     Grandfather sat back, laughing. “Ferdinas woke up with a start, and realized that the whole thing had simply been a dream. And now, to bed with all of you. Good night.”

       “Wasn’t that a good story?” Pearl asked as she led Merry and Pippin out of the library. “Pimpernel, Pervinca, hurry up!”

      Pippin shivered excitedly. “I liked it! The Witch was scary, wasn’t she, Merry?”

      “Not so very.  I’ve read scarier things,” Merry said. At sixteen, he liked to seem like a big lad, unafraid of stories. “I hope you can sleep tonight, though.”

     Pippin nodded. To his eight-year-old mind, every shadow had eyes, and every creaky floorboard was indicative of some horrible monster coming after him. He shivered, deliciously scared.

    As was common on stormy nights, not many grown-ups were around. They always went to bed early, and let the children play late. Therefore, it was hardly surprising that the children didn’t meet anybody as they moved down the corridors, leaving each small group of siblings at their own door. Pimmie went with Cousins Diamond and Violet, intending to spend the night in their rooms. Finally, it was just Pearl, Merry, and Pippin, along with three other little Tooks: Rosie, Lily, and Marigold. They were all between the ages of Merry and Pippin.

      The group walked across the Great Smials in silence. Above them and outside them, they could hear the pounding of the rain and the roar of the thunder as it scoured the Shire. Most of the candles had been put out by the servants, and they walked in near darkness, save for the single candle that Pearl held. Pippin pressed close to his sister and clung to Merry’s hand.

     “This must be what the goblin caves in the Misty mountains look like, Merry,” he whispered. “Remember, from Cousin Bilbo’s stories?”

     Little Rosie whimpered. “Do you think that there are goblins here?” she asked, clutching her own sister. “There aren’t goblins in the Smials, are there?”

     “No, there aren’t,” said Pearl, but Pippin could here the tremor in her voice.

     “Don’t worry, all of you, Merry and I’ll protect you,” he said. “Won’t we, Merry?”

         Merry nodded, and they continued on. They had to pass some of the old storerooms on the way to their apartments, and none of the children were looking forward to it much. The storerooms were scary even in the middle of summer, and they were terrifying on All Hallow’s Eve.

     “Do you think that there are ghosts, Pippin?” Marigold whispered, who was Pip’s age.

     “Of course,” replied Pippin, letting his imagination run wild. “They are the ghosts of the Elves who died at the Battle of Five Armies, and they probably eat hobbits.”

      “Pippin,” scolded Pearl. “No where in any of Bilbo’s stories did it say that Elves eat hobbits.”

     “No,” countered Pippin, “But you never know, do you?”

      Lily whimpered, and Merry told Pippin to be quiet. The children were all huddled together now, protected by the circle of light that Pearl’s candle gave off. They were right in the midst of the storeroom corridor. A sudden loud creak made them jump, and Lily began to cry.

      “I want my mamma!” she wailed.

      “Shh, Lil, we’re almost there,” replied Merry, picking the tiny lass up. “It’s alright.”

     “I think it’s a spider,” said Pippin, edging forward. “Or a dragon. Look! There! See its eyes?”

     They were all too stunned to move. Pippin was right, for once, there was something with huge green eyes staring at them. The eyes blinked, and there was a soft hiss. Then something large and dark ran at them with a screech.

     Marigold screamed. Her cry unfroze the others, and their shrieks could be heard on both sides of the Smials. Merry gave up the pretense of being a mature older lad, grabbed Pippin with one hand and baby Lily with the other, and ran for his life. The others followed at his heels.

     Aunt Lala and Aunt Gardenia were standing in the hallway outside their apartments, concerned looks on their faces as they watched the children fly up to meet them. Amidst the jabber of loud, hysterical voices and tears, the mothers were able to make out the words, “There was something horrid in the storage corridor!”

     Aunt Lala groaned. That “something horrid” was something that she was well-acquainted with-the cat that Esmeralda Brandybuck had given her last week when she delivered Merry to them, to catch the mice that were plaguing the Smials. It had a knack for making uncanny hissing noises.

     “Calm down, calm down,” she soothed them. “It was just Spooky, the cat that Auntie Esmeralda gave to us, to help with the mice.”

     Merry gave her a wide-eyed look. “That thing has a name?!” he yelped.

     “It certainly does,” sighed Aunt Gardenia. “Come along, lasses, bedtime.”

     The Took girls followed their mother off, and Lala led her brood into their rooms. Merry and Pippin decided to take up residence with Pearl that night, and it was a sign of how frightened she had been that Pearl allowed them to sleep at the foot of her bed.

    “Thank goodness that All Hallow’s Eve only comes once a year,” murmured Pippin sleepily. “I couldn’t bear the terror otherwise.”

     Merry and Pearl wholeheartedly agreed.

The End