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As the Gentle Rain  by Lindelea 5 Review(s)
HaiReviewed Chapter: 27 on 5/14/2004
If Ulrich is not responsible for the fire who is? Who would want to hurt the hobbits besdies ruffians? I guess it will all be revealed at some point. Yay ofr Beregond! I have always liked him and it has been great to see him again in this fic, playing such a nice role in saving the hobbits! Thank you and looking forward to more!

Author Reply: Well, I was leaning towards mischief on the part of some miscreants who were then going to blackmail the mayor (had he not confessed to being a former ruffian), but now I'm beginning to wonder if somehow the Pilgrim was involved... still working that part out.

Thanks for reviewing!

Pearl TookReviewed Chapter: 27 on 5/13/2004
This remains incredibly good!! I like the way you've made it still a bit unsure if Ulrich is Reinadan. Or at least, I sense that possibility. Just a wonderful story!!

Pearl Took

Author Reply: Thanks for the encouragement! All will come clear over the course of the next few chapters, I hope.

Bluegrass ElfReviewed Chapter: 27 on 5/13/2004
So he's a ruffian gone good. Neat!

Author Reply: People can change. After all, Freddy went from being a homebody to a hero!

Thanks for reviewing.

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 27 on 5/13/2004
Well, he might have been a ruffian at one time. He certainly was a liar and interested in saving his own skin. But there is a shred of decency left in Ulrich, and he knows he's in it up past where he's comfortable. Thank goodness, there are to be no more hobbit deaths to be laid to his conscience. I hope he will face what is coming with bravery. I also hope Pip isn't going to suffer from the smoke - has the Entdraught grown his lungs healthy enough that he will not take ill from this?

Author Reply: O yes. Ulrich is an honourable man. And the entdraught cured Pip's lungs, so he'll be only as uncomfortable as everyone else, but not in danger of his life.

ConnieReviewed Chapter: 27 on 5/13/2004
God, they're everywhere; ruffians that is. One's now confessed, but now they've got to find out who set the fire. How many of these evil men are roaming freely around Aragorn's realm? Looks like he needs to run some sort of criminal roundup like the cops do periodically today.

I knew you wouldn't kill off any of the hobbits, but you still had me holding my breath and sitting here with my hand over my mouth in shock for a minute. What is it with these ruffians and their obsession with hobbit flambeau? They are really getting annoying. I'm sure the hobbits think so.

I had a little moment of concern for Pippin, too. At one time just that exposure to smoke could have had dire consiquences. I'm still just a tad worried for him. But that's just my protedtive nature coming out where Pippin is concerned.

I'm glad Ulrich confessed. That is a mark in his favor. Oh dear, I quite forgot, if he is willing to confess his identity so quickly, then he probably wasn't the person who tried to poisin Freddy. Oh man, the plot thickens once again.

Connie.

Author Reply: Ummm... I don't know how to tell you this. You've been labouring under a misapprehension. Freddy has not been poisoned. There was nothing wrong with the mead, or the food. He has a wonky heart, remember, and when he heard a voice from the past the shock was enough to send him into a tailspin.

I had thought about Pippin and smoke and was glad of his earlier healing!

Baylor said something in her LJ the other day that made me rephrase an old song: "Hobbits roasting on an open fire..."

It would have been the perfect crime for the Pilgrim, but I think he's too crazy to work in coordination with anyone else so it wasn't him, probably. Just some "helpful" shady types you'll find around any town of Men. Had Ulrich stayed they might have come around and tried to blackmail him later. He did the only thing he could do, I think, as a Man who'd turned himself around and sought to change, and now saw his silence putting innocent folks in danger.

Author Reply: Am rethinking. The outline isn't absolutely clear on this, and it just might be the Pilgrim after all who started the fire. Perhaps he recruited a local lowlife to help him, a not-too-bright fellow who didn't think through the implications of what they were doing. Don't know quite yet.

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