Through the Eyes of Another

Merry made himself comfortable and pulled the top of his bedroll up underneath his chin with a deep sigh. It had been a very long day and he was grateful that it was over. Travel could be exhausting. Surely at some point there would be a better way to get from one place to another. He was reminded of one of Gaffer Gamgee’s sayings; “If folks have the need to go somewhere different, best to pick a place close to home so if you don’t like it as well as you’d hoped then it’ll be easier to get back.” He chuckled silently and began to drift off to sleep with a trace of a smile on his face.

Pippin sat up for the third time that evening and squinted in the direction of the trees. There was something moving around in there. He was convinced of it. Every time he started to drift off, he would hear the snap of a twig or the rustle of leaves. Something or someone was just out of sight in the darkness. He shivered and drew his blanket around him tightly and looked up at the sky nervously. How could Merry sleep with all of that noise going on? Surely he heard it. Wasn’t he at all worried? Pippin frowned over at his older cousin. He could just make out Merry’s shape in the darkness.

He wished there were more stars out. It was friendlier with the light of stars. For a moment he thought about how Frodo had first taught him the names of some of the stars when he was still very small. He remembered sitting outside in the evening with Frodo and asking him the names of the stars. Frodo had been so patient with him. He had never minded the constant questions. Well, almost never. Pippin jerked back a bit as another sound somewhere just outside of their camp assaulted his ears.

“What are you doing?” Merry groaned, as he felt someone arranging blankets extremely close to his own bedroll.

“Nothing, Merry,” Pippin answered, lying down as close to his older cousin as he possibly could without laying on top of him. “Go on back to sleep.”

“Move over,” Merry grunted. “You are practically smothering me.” He propped himself up on one elbow and eyed his younger cousin who was now lying on his side with his face turned away from him. Pippin was curled up in his own bedroll trying to look as if he had been sleeping there all along. Merry gave his cousin’s shoulder a gentle nudge. “Go back over there and sleep.”

“It’s cold all the way over there,” Pippin replied.

“Peregrin Took, it is late spring and as hot as it has ever been this time of the year,” Merry said, lying back down with a slight smile on his face. “We nearly roasted alive this afternoon. As I recall, you kept complaining about the heat all day long until I finally agreed to make camp early.”

“I did not!” Pippin objected. “You said your feet were hurting and so I agreed to stop. I could have gone on for several hours more. In fact, I wanted to.”

Merry groaned. “Then why don’t you get a head start now while I get some sleep. Go on,” he said, poking Pippin in the ribs. “I’ll catch up to you in time for second breakfast.”

“I am not traipsing about in the dark,” Pippin said, worriedly. “Besides, you’d never find me. You’d wander about in these woods until you starved to death more than likely.”

Merry laughed at this. Pippin was the one with the dreadful sense of direction.

“You would!” Pippin said, turning to face him. “You’d be lost without me!”

“I'd be sound asleep without you is what I would be, Peregrin Took,” Merry laughed. “You got us turned around twice today on the way here or have you forgotten?”

“I don’t recall anything of that sort,” Pippin said, sounding insulted.

“Now, go lay down over there so that I can sleep, will you?” Merry said, gently. “This is a very long trip, and I am very tired and you are old enough to sleep by yourself, you know.”

“Maybe I’ll just sit up for a while,” Pippin sighed, and he rose up slowly and wrapped his arms around his knees.

“What’s wrong?” Merry asked, his eyes still closed.

“I told you I was cold,” Pippin said, softly.

“No, you’re not,” Merry said. “I’ve known you all of your life and you are not cold. You’re nervous.” He opened his eyes and regarded Pippin. “What’s bothering you?”

“I think there’s something out there, just beyond the trees,” Pippin said, worriedly.

“Anything in particular?” Merry asked.

“Well, it could be anything I suppose,” Pippin said, looking toward the trees. “I can’t see very well in the dark.”

“You see better than I do,” Merry smiled. “What did you hear?”

“Twigs snapping and trees rustling and all manner of little annoying noises,” Pippin said with a shiver.

“Lay down,” Merry sighed, patting Pippin’s blankets with his hand. He waited while Pippin got comfortable and then he put an arm around him. “Now, go to sleep. Just remember that at my advanced age, if anything does come out of those woods, it will likely kill us both before I am fully awake.”

“I wish you wouldn’t say things like that, Merry,” Pippin said. “You aren’t so very old as all that.”

Merry snickered. “I am nearly one-hundred and three years of age, Peregrin Took. How old do I have to be before you notice it?”

“I know how old you are,” Pippin growled. “But you aren’t feeble. You could defend yourself if you had to.” He scooted his back into Merry’s chest as he spoke.

“Well, I suppose if I heard it coming and it was moving very slowly and I was already standing with my sword in my hands and it fell forward onto the point of it, then I might be of some use to you,” Merry said, sarcastically. “Would you feel better if I got up and got my sword? Whatever is about to attack us might just die laughing at the sight of a very old hobbit with a sword in his hands.” Merry smiled.

“I should feel a great deal better if you would just allow me to sleep here next to you. I would feel safer if you must know,” Pippin said, softly. Before Merry could reply he continued, in a rather cheeky tone, "Also, I do believe that standing about and letting it fall on my sword was how I managed to kill that Troll. You should be more than able to protect us if it turns out to be another Troll."

“All right then, but you do realize that when we reach Gondor, I will have to tell how you needed my protection on our journey,” Merry said in an amused tone.

Pippin groaned. “I suspect that you will enjoy that, won’t you?”

“Oh, indeed,” Merry said with a chuckle. “I’ll wait for just the right moment when all of our dear friends are all gathered together and then I will tell them how a Knight of Rohan was forced to stand guard over a frightened Knight of Gondor.” He tightened his grip on his younger cousin.

“Go ahead then, only just see to it that you do protect me,” Pippin said, nervously.

Suddenly it dawned on Merry what this was about and he sighed. “Why didn’t you say something when we stopped?”

Pippin exhaled. “You were tired and your feet were sore and it seemed silly while the sun was still out.”

“You want to move on a bit now?” Merry asked, gently.

Now, Pippin laughed. “Two old hobbits wandering about in the dark? Wouldn’t that beat all? No, I’m fine right here.”

“I truly didn’t notice how close that we are to the place where we were camping on that night so long ago,” Merry admitted. “If I had I might not have stayed here myself.”

“At least, maybe this time, nothing will fly over,” Pippin said, weakly.

Merry ran a hand through his cousin’s curls and held him. “They’re all gone, Pip. No more fell beasts and no more Nazgul to fly over in the dark. Frodo saw to that a long time ago. You’re as safe here as you are anywhere.”

“I still hear his voice sometimes,” Pippin shuddered and Merry knew that his cousin didn’t mean Frodo’s voice.

“I still see you lying in the dark with Gandalf’s hand on your face in my dreams once in a while,” Merry admitted. “This place holds no pleasant memories for either of us and I am sorry that we made camp here.” He felt a bit ill when he thought of how close he had come to losing Pippin to the Dark Lord because of the Palantir and an over-abundance of Tookish curiousity.

“At least, I won’t have to ride off and leave you this time,” Pippin said.

“I won’t allow it,” Merry said, giving Pippin a firm squeeze. “Now, try to sleep and we will put this place behind us as soon as my old bones are able to stir in the morning.”

“You are not that old,” Pippin muttered.

“No? Just who do you think you’re talking to, you silly Took?” Merry asked.

“The finest Master of Buckland that there ever was or will be, a Knight of the Mark who has been sent for by his King, one of the Nine Walkers, a writer of some of the most boring books in all of the Shire, a father to several rather intelligent hobbits, Meriadoc the Magnificent,” Pippin said, softly.

“I suppose so,” Merry admitted, a bit taken aback but pleased at being thought of as something other than an extremely old hobbit in his last years and on what he had come to think of as a downhill slide. His life’s accomplishments, when listed thusly by Pippin, did impress even himself.

“Only just now, could you do me a favor and just be my older cousin, Merry who looks after me when I’m frightened?” Pippin requested, meekly sounding very like he had when he had been no more than a teen.

“That is one of my very favorite things to be, Pip,” Merry said, hugging his cousin. “Oh, and don’t worry that I will tell this to anyone. At my age, I will have likely forgotten it before we stop for lunch tomorrow. I can hardly be expected to remember this all the way to Gondor.”

“I am counting on that very thing. In fact, I am hoping to forget this myself,” Pippin said and he yawned. “I think that I can sleep for a bit now that I know that you are standing watch.”

“Go ahead then,” Merry said. “I’m here.” He lay there next to Pippin listening to his younger cousin’s breathing. And it was quite a while before he slept. His head was too full of thoughts and his heart was too full of love for his cousin. It felt good to be needed. Pippin was right, Merry decided. He wasn't all that old.

The End

G.W. 02/09/2005

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1484

In the spring of the year a message came from Rohan to Buckland that the King Eomer wished to see Master Holdwine once again. Meriadoc was then old (102) but still hale. He took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire. _ J. R. R. Tolkien