The early morning rays of sunlight filtered through the curtains and illuminated Frodo's drawn features. The rest of the night had passed uneventfully for him, with only a vague feeling of uneasiness and dread. He opened his eyes; and as he did so, the horrible dream rushed at him from out of nowhere and he stifled a cry.

"Good morning, Mr. Frodo," Sam said softly from where he stood at the bedside.

Frodo looked at his friend, already fully dressed, and forced a smile. "Good morning." He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

Frodo was not a morning person, but it was still obvious that Frodo hadn’t slept well. Sam knew that the best remedy would be distraction. He grinned and laid Frodo’s folded clothes on the pillow. "We’d best be up and about. That young lad will be rarin’ to go today…if he even stirs from bed. I heard Anna gave him a night of it."

"Oh no! What now?" asked Frodo, beginning to smile.

"Whimpered and cried and carried on till he put her in bed with him, then slept like a babe the rest of the night." Sam said, chuckling.

Frodo laughed shakily. "Yes, Halmir will likely be very tired today then." ‘Very tired indeed,’ he thought with a pang of guilt. If only he hadn’t roused the entire house!

Sam must have guessed his thoughts, for he gave him a look that said, ‘Don’t you go worryin’ about things as aren’t your fault, Mr. Frodo.’

Not long afterward there was a knock at the bedroom door. Frodo answered and found himself looking up at a very tired-looking Halmir. A warm woolen robe was thrown about his shoulders, and Anna was held securely in his arms. "Oh, Halmir, you look as if you didn’t sleep a wink!" said Frodo.

"It’s her fault!" The lad tried to smile around a yawn.

Frodo smiled. "Sam told me. Ah well, Halmir, it’s part of being a guardian. Now, young master, does anyone else know you’re up?"

"Oh yes. Anna didn’t just wake me. Oh no, that was not enough. She must needs let loose with a howl and rouse Gandalf as well!"

Frodo and Sam roared with laughter. "She probably just wants her breakfast," Sam explained, looking over his shoulder as he industriously plumped pillows.

At that moment Merry and Pippin appeared. "Did I hear someone say breakfast?" asked the irrepressible youngest hobbit.

Frodo laughed again as he was enveloped in one of Merry’s bear hugs. That had been Merry’s way of rousing him when they were young at Brandy Hall.

"Yes," said Halmir. "Come on!" And he began limping back towards his own room. It was the first time Frodo had seen him attempt walking, and he was shocked by the unsteadiness of the boy’s gait. Indeed, it looked as if Halmir might fall at any moment. In a second Frodo was at his side, covertly offering support by way of a brotherly arm about the lad’s shoulders (which was rather a far reach).

"Well, my lad, ready for some adventures?" Frodo said, smiling up at his young charge as they made their way slowly along the corridor.

"Am I!" cried Halmir, with such an eager expression of countenance that everyone smiled to see it.

As it turned out, Gandalf and Legolas had risen early and were attending various business matters about the City. So it was up to the four Hobbits and the lad to eat breakfast by themselves. Soon, though, they were joined by Gimli.

The breakfast was wonderful. Delicious eggs with cheese scrambled in, and bacon and delicious biscuits. There was also some fruit on the table that Frodo and Sam had never seen before. Frodo held one up.

"What...what is this?" It was a roundish ball, bright orange in colour. Sam looked at it quizzically.

"Oh, Frodo! That is a delicious fruit."Pippin chirped. But then, Pippin liked just about any food. "You can only find it this far South. Aragorn said that even if we took one home to grow, it wouldn’t grow, because the winters and even the spring and fall is too cold in the Shire. Guess what it’s called?"

Both Frodo and Sam gave him a withering look. "My dear cousin, how in Middle Earth am I to guess what the Gondorians named this odd fruit?"

"Alright, alright, don’t be any fun. It’s called...."Pippin giggled, "An Orange!"

Sam and Frodo both started laughing. Even Merry was laughing. Gimli and Halmir exchanged confused glances.

"Frodo?" Halmir asked. "What is so funny?"

"Well, Halmir, it’s just that it’s so dreadfully obvious. And, well, the Gondorians and the Rohirric all have such funny names for everything else, that..."Frodo chuckled and then said,

"How do you eat it?" Frodo attempted to bite into it like an apple.

"Not like that, mell nin. You must peel it first." Heads swiveled to see who the new voice belonged to. A chorus of greetings rose when the speaker was identified.

"My Lord!"

"Aragorn!"

"Strider!"

Then everyone addressed the King at once.

"Why are you here?"

"Do you want to join us for breakfast?"

"We are so very glad to see you!"

"Sit down, sit down!"

Aragorn held up his hands in defense. "Please! Everyone. I am quite glad to see you all as well. I am free this morning, so I thought I would drop by and see how my friends are doing. How was your night?"

Frodo’s face darkened, but Pippin immediately made his cousin smile by saying, "It was fine. We should tell Halmir some stories." The orange was forgotten.

"About Frodo’s escapades," Merry put in.

"Like the time he tried to make breakfast when Mer and I were visiting!" Pippin sang in triumph.

"Nooooo!" Frodo groaned. "You wouldn’t do that to your dear old cousin, would you?"

Pippin ignored this. "You see, Halmir," he began, "it was soon after Bilbo left the Shire, and Merry and I were at Bag End for a week. One morning Frodo decided to make pancakes for us for breakfast. But somehow or other he got the flour and soda confused, and ended up using soda instead of flour in the batter. So when he tried to cook them, they went everywhere! Then I slipped in the sticky mess and dropped a cream pitcher. Of course it broke, and cream was all over the floor."

"And another time," Frodo put in, "during this same visit, I had to go to market for more foodstuffs. Two young hobbits have a remarkable ability to deplete the larder in a matter of days. Anyway, while I was gone, Merry and Pip decided to make me a cake to make up for something they’d done earlier."

Merry groaned, and Pippin cried, "Frodo, no!"

Frodo ignored his cousins and went on. "By Sam’s account they spilled batter everywhere, and then they tried to clean it up. Unfortunately they got hold of the wrong kind of soap, and used too much besides. So when I returned and opened the kitchen door to see what the shouting was about, I was greeted by a cloud of soap suds that rose almost to the ceiling! Then I dropped all the food I’d just bought, and milk, bread, butter, honey, and eggs were added to the mess."

Everyone was laughing. "Did…did you ever…manage to clean it up?" Halmir gasped out between fits of laughter.

"Yes," said Merry. "Good old Sam was so kind to help."

"Pip is especially good at making great messes," Frodo teased. "Why, he nearly flooded my house at Crickhollow before we left the Shire!"

"Oh no no no no no!" Pippin cried in a rush. "Frodo Baggins, you will not tell that story!"

Frodo thought for a moment. "No, perhaps I won’t," he finally said. "For it might be somewhat…embarrassing."

"Frodo, tell the lad about the first time I met your rapscallion cousins in Rivendell." said Gimli

Merry and Pippin groaned loudly, and Frodo and Sam exchanged amused glances. "Yes, perhaps I will." said Frodo.

"A very humorous story, Halmir." Aragorn added.

"Oh, do!" cried Halmir, squirming with excitement.

Frodo settled back into the (rather large) chair he was sitting in and took a deep breath. He looked at every single face and decided he was quite satisfied with the expressions he found. Gimli and Aragorn had an air of calm expectancy; Halmir was nearly jumping out of his skin with excitement; Sam smiled knowingly, and Merry and Pippin looked nervous. Frodo was ready to begin.

"Well, when we were at Rivendell, on a lovely day before the Council, I was reading..."

He was interrupted by Pippin saying sarcastically, "Well, *that's* no surprise!"

Frodo looked at his young cousin with a straight face. But his blue eyes twinkled with fun. "You would do well to read more often, young cousin, especially if you are supposed to be the Thain. And besides, who's telling this story?"

Pippin left the question unanswered and settled back. "That's what I thought. Now, as I was saying, there I was reading in the garden, a particularly good story, I might ad, when all of a sudden, I hear someone shouting my name. Strider here comes nearly running to me. ‘Frodo! You had best come quickly, if you want to save your cousins from Lord Elrond's wrath.’ Of course, I could have expected this was the problem, having spent so much time with the impish pair," snorts from Merry and Pippin, "but, I thought they knew better than to meddle with the tempers of Elves. Apparently," he added with a look at the two, "they still don't! Anyway, Sam and I followed Strider down several corridors until I got quite lost, and I could tell Sam felt that way as well. Soon, however, we began to hear several agitated voices. And then came the greatest surprise: soapy water all over the floor, spilling, apparently, from the wash room! From the point where our feet first touched the water to the door must've been at least five feet!"

"Was not!" Pippin butted in hotly. "Everyone know's your judgement may not have been perfectly correct because…because you've always been like that, bad at measuring!"

"I'm sorry, Master Peregrin, but I do believe your cousin is right in this matter. It was at least five feet into the halls on either side," Aragorn said.

"So a total of ten,"Frodo added. "When we got into the wash room, we were met with a most comical sight. The Lord Elrond was there, the cook and several other Elves were all making a circle around two soapy Hobbits with chocolate and flour all over their faces and clothes, each holding an armful of treats. Everyone was standing in water that had apparently spilled over the edge of the bath."

Frodo paused while everyone howled with laughter. When it had died down, Merry piped up, "And maybe you'd like to hear how it came to be that way."

"Yes, all by accident, you know!" Pippin chimed in.

"Well, it all started when our boring cousin took his bodyguard and his book to the garden and left Pip and me to fend for ourselves to have fun."

A sniff from Pippin. "Yes, and we were terribly bored, but no one was paying attention to us. Bilbo was sleeping and Lord Elrond was too busy."

Merry nodded and continued, "Aye, and so we took initiative and decided to pay the larder a little visit."

"Right, behind the cooks back!" Frodo said in jest.

Pippin looked indignant. "Well, we didn't exactly tell him what we were doing, but he wasn't around and we found it without his help, so it was fine."

"As we were saying, we took our prize, after accidently upsetting some flour, chocolate dip and the cook, and made for the bath room rather quickly to wash off. The cook lost us, and Pip here accidently knocked over the whole box of soap..."

"Taken from Bilbo’s room, I might add!" Frodo stated.

Merry and Pippin blushed a little. "So,"Merry continued, "It spilled all over the place, and that's when Lord Elrond with the cook..."

"And the wrong story!"

"And Strider and more Elves all came to scold us and then Strider left and came back with Sam and Frodo."

"Yes, and they got us out of trouble."

"Don't I always?" Frodo interjected.

"Yes. So, ever since then, Lord Elrond has said that his house will not be at peace as long as Pip and I are there."

"But we still can't figure out exactly why!" Pip added, which was met with peals of laughter from everyone.

"Were they always this impish when they were young and on the Quest, Frodo?" Halmir asked.

Sam, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli all said "Yes!!" emphatically.

Frodo looked thoughtful. "Well, sometimes I think they have matured. Merry has anyway, but Pippin, well…I have to wonder."

Before Pippin could recover from his sputtering spell, the King spoke. "Well, it has been absolutely wonderful dining with you, but I regret that I have business to attend, now. Farewell, dear friends."

"Me, too. Farewell, lads. Try not and destroy the house!" Gimli said as he followed King Elessar out. And so four Hobbits, a boy, and a puppy were left to find adventures.

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TBC....

Copyright Frodo Baggins 2006