Always Here

“Merry, do you ever think that Frodo would return from Valinor? When he is healed, what if he is able to return to Middle-earth and stay with us?”

Merry looked into Pippin’s green melancholy eyes, surprised. They were smoking pipeweed in the fair evening outside Crickhollow, looking westwards as they often did.

After a moment’s pause, Merry replied softly and sadly, “I don’t think so, Pip. I feel that no one returns from Valinor. No elves have, and I do not suspect that Frodo would either… Once Frodo is healed, I would imagine Valinor to be a beautiful, peaceful place for him to want to stay in…”

“I surely hope so too, but sometimes you just wonder, ‘what ifs’…” Pippin looked down upon his feet, lowering his pipe in deep thought. The grass was cool beneath his feet and the sun warmed him even in the coming evening. But it did not cheer the heaviness in his heart.

Merry put his arm around Pippin’s shoulders while his other hand gestured to the center of his chest, “Frodo is still with us…in our minds and hearts, always and forever.”

A sudden and gentle western breeze blew upon the hobbits in affirmation.

Double Drabble written for ethereal_hobbit / Nivster upon the 11th month of her passing.