Interests: Cross country, running
~~~

Born to Wander

Hobbits are not built for running, Ruby thought, as she ran. She had heard stories of the Mearas, the beautiful horses of Rohan, and thought there could be nothing better l than to run cross country, all over the green grass of Middle-earth. Or to fly like a bird, one of the great eagles who had rescued her Da and Mr. Frodo and carried them gently to their friends. She longed with all her heart to see such things, to touch them and smell them and know that they were really real.

When she realized she could not run like the Mearas or fly like the eagles, Ruby decided she would walk. Hadn’t her Da, and Mr. Frodo, walked all the way to the Black Lands? Borrowing her Da’s old pack, she would stuff it with food and her sketchbook and her water bottle, and would walk for hours, stopping now and again to draw a interestingly shaped tree, or a cat with her kittens.

“She’s got the wanderlust,” her Da said. “One day she’ll kiss us goodbye, and walk out that door, and not stop walking ‘til she’s walked all over Middle Earth,” And that’s exactly what Ruby did.