Chapter 13. A Shortcut to Mushrooms*

She awakened, somehow aware of scrutiny – the hair prickling on the back of her neck – and turned over suddenly, to see Ferdibrand sitting up beside her, with a thoughtful look on his face. He indicated his cloak. ‘When did this happen?’ he said, one side of his mouth quirking in a half-smile.

‘You looked cold,’ Estella said with a little of her old haughtiness, sitting upright and stretching to get out the kinks. Wakening was getting easier, she thought. She wasn’t half as sore as she’d felt at the start of their previous march.

He merely smiled and shook his head, then dug another serving of bread from his pack, adding some dried meat and fruit to complete the meal. ‘The goats’ cheese grows in smell as it ages,’ he said in explanation. ‘That’s why Rosie packed it in the outer layer of wrappings. We wouldn’t want the ruffians or their dogs to catch a whiff of us in passing and feel compelled to follow the scent to its source.’

Estella suppressed a shiver at the mention of dogs. She’d heard Frodo tell Freddy about Maggots’ dogs at Bamfurlong Farm, and his vivid description had made an impression on her mind, one that had her looking at every large dog with suspicion for months afterward. To cover her thoughts, she opened her own pack to retrieve the next meal. The bread was beginning to stale, but still edible; the fruit was sweet and toothsome; the meat, on the other hand...

‘Bite off a piece and then take a mouthful of water to help soften it whilst you chew,’ Ferdi said with a smile. ‘Better than trying to choke it down, dry.’ And as his smile said more of his understanding than condescension, she didn’t take offence.

She nodded and complied, looking out upon the day through the leafy screen that covered the mouth of the cave. It was bright outside, mid-day, she thought. Likely they’d eat and lie down again until dusk, and then get up and walk.

…but no, as it turned out. When he was finished with his meal, Ferdi turned to her. ‘This deep in the Wood, we’re not likely to encounter anyone, ruffian or hobbit,’ he said. ‘Well, perhaps hobbits, though in this day even that’s unlikely, as it’s getting harder and harder to get a Pass to leave one’s home or community.’

Estella nodded. The addition of Passes to the ever-lengthening list of Rules had been one reason why Freddy had spirited her from their home to the forest Bolgers’ in the middle of the night.

‘In any event,’ Ferdi said, ‘my usual travel route is shorter and more dangerous – paralleling the Stock Road, for the most part. I don’t often travel this deep into the Wood, not having the luxury of time.’

Estella nodded, wondering when he would get to the point.

‘Good lad,’ Ferdi said, approving her obvious show of attention. A part of her mind wondered at that – he called her “Twig” or “lad” even when there was no chance of someone overhearing. The hobbit was a study in caution – as was his sister. ‘Any road, I deem ‘twould be much more difficult for two to pass the most dangerous stretch, than one – I have any number of disguises and schemes – sometimes it suffices to throw myself down in a ditch, but not always! And two – in a ditch – would be much more noticeable than one, I should think.’

‘As do I,’ Estella affirmed wryly at the mental image this presented.

‘So we shall spend the rest of the day harvesting mushrooms as we go,’ Ferdi said. ‘We came this way, longer though it might be – is, actually – so that we could go through some of the best mushroom-hunting land to be found in the Wood between Stock and Tuckborough.’

‘Mushrooms!’ Estella said in surprise.

Ferdi laughed at her expression. ‘Aye,’ he said, a rare Tookish slip on his part, for he quickly amended his speech. ‘Yes, I mean, and we will go as quick and quiet through the dangerous part as we can, and if we manage to go without ruffians catching us it will be all well and good – for the Thain will certainly welcome what we bring with us…’

‘And if not?’ Estella said.

‘Well then,’ Ferdi said. ‘Here is our story. You are my son,’ Estella wondered how he'd pull that off, being only a year or two older than herself, ‘or nephew – in any event, you are the Youngster in any speech I might have with a ruffian – and you are to be shy and awkward and let me do all the talking…’

‘The Fox with the Silver Tongue,’ Estella said, and Ferdi nodded with a grin.

‘Just as in that old story,’ he said. ‘We have been sent by Shirriff Tallow,’ and at Estella’s quickly suppressed gasp he nodded and added, ‘even so.’

Shirriff Tallow was one of Lotho’s hobbits, a two-feather Shirriff whose fame – or perhaps infamy – had spread beyond Bywater and Hobbiton, his usual haunts. He had thrown his lot in completely with Lotho and Lotho’s Men, enjoying the sense of power and the wealth – gathered from Shire-folk, but what was that to him? – afforded by his position. He hadn’t even been a Shirriff, to start, but had quickly risen in the ranks to a place of prominence with his bullying ways, and ability to curry favour with his superiors.

‘The good Shirriff has sent us to gather mushrooms for the Chief,’ Ferdi went on, ‘and so, of course, we must have a goodly supply of mushrooms in our packs if we should have to tell our story. It’s worked once, at least,’ he said. ‘We simply surrender our packs to the ruffians, who will bypass Tallow (and never find that we did not have orders) and bring the mushrooms to Lotho themselves, as if it were their own idea, and he’ll give them all the credit and reward.’

‘And since Tallow,’ Estella grimaced at having to pronounce the name, ‘never sent us, he won’t know to lodge a protest,’ she said, ‘or seek to punish the poor hobbits that he never actually sent out.’

‘Exactly,’ Ferdi said. ‘It’s a dangerous business, but less of a gamble than trying to sneak by unseen – which we will be doing, or attempting, at least. This is simply braces to add to our belts.’

Estella smiled at the picture. ‘Well, then,’ she said. ‘Shall we get started?’

Ferdi looked intently at her. ‘What do you know about gathering mushrooms?’ he said. ‘Brought up as you were, how do I know you’ll gather good and not ill?’

Estella laughed softly. ‘I’m the tagalong little sister of Fatty Bolger!’ she said. ‘Surely in your youth you heard him complain about it!’

Ferdi laughed his silent laugh.

‘I was there, when Frodo took him mushrooming – not at Bamfurlong, of course, but in the woods near Budge Hall, for when old Bilbo adopted him, he no longer raided Maggots’ fields…’

‘No, I heard he changed after the old hobbit took him in, from one of the worst young rascals of Buckland, to quite a fine and upstanding hobbit of Hobbiton,’ Ferdi said.

‘Yes, but he had quite a talent for mushrooms, even so,’ Estella said. ‘He let me learn alongside Freddy, though Freddy would have sent me home. He said something to the effect that everyone ought to learn the difference between good mushrooms and deadly ones, for their own protection. Even if I were to become a fine lady in a Hall of my own, and not a mushroom hunter by trade, I should want to be able to look through a basket of mushrooms brought to my door by a hopeful seller…’ A sudden tear surprised her in the midst of this practical sentiment, and a lump came to her throat, so that she blinked and faltered.

Ferdi nodded and patted her shoulder. ‘He was a fine hobbit,’ he said, ‘though I didn’t know him as well as you and Freddy did. I knew him as someone kind and thoughtful, and generous into the bargain.’ When he saw that his words were only causing the tears to flow more rapidly, he changed direction. ‘I wish I had the opportunity to know him better – now, that is,’ and at his wry tone Estella looked up in surprise. He nodded at her expression. ‘Ah, yes, I admit I found him to be quite dull, you know – I didn’t have much appreciation for books and reading. Still don’t, as a matter of fact. I can read, practical things, but all those tales of his, and Elvish translations of Bilbo’s – people and places too far and away to be of any use or good.’

Estella’s expression turned to pity, and she shook her head at him, but he only laughed silently again, and said, ‘Well, those mushrooms won’t gather themselves! Let us be about our business…’

As they emerged from the cave, he looked about them carefully, eyed the sky, listened – and Estella found herself holding her breath and listening, herself, though she hadn’t the faintest idea what they might be listening for. At last Ferdi drew a deep breath and said, ‘Just smell that fresh air! Not even the smallest taint of smoke. No wood fires, or coal or peat, this deep in the Wood. No ruffians camping nearby, I should think, for they seldom go without a fire and cooked food – why, I’ve seen them drag a hobbit along with them on their travels, just to do the cooking for them! Still, we’ll keep our voices down, speak more with our hands than our lips, just to keep in practice.’

Estella nodded.

Ferdi drew another deep breath and cocked an eye at the sky. ‘Noonish,’ he said. ‘Clear weather for the next day or two at least – we’ll have a full moon this night for our walking.’

‘Gather mushrooms all the afternoon, walk all the night?’ Estella wanted to know. This would be the longest day of her experience, if so.

‘Most of the night,’ Ferdi said. ‘As I said, once we’re through this stretch of Wood we’ll be coming closer to habitation once more, and it’ll be safer to walk in darkness and silence. The next hidey-hole is a good way off, and will take us that long to reach, as we won’t be covering ground so quickly, at least until we’ve each gathered a full load of mushrooms.’ He smiled at her attempt to conceal her dismay. ‘If not for the mushrooms, it would be a night’s walk, perhaps a little less…’

‘But the shrooms buy us safety, or at least, braces,’ Estella said bravely.

Ferdi’s smile broadened in approval. ‘At the very least,’ he said.

***

A/N: Title is a nod to JRRT, of course, especially as this is not really a shortcut, though mushrooms are involved.