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A Healer's Tale  by Lindelea 10 Review(s)
Anso the HobbitReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/21/2005
Oh, this is quite a development in just one chapter! Poor hobbits, they want to heal everything with food, but Woodruff is right. Poor Merry too, he`s certianly taking this hard. And now Pip has met a man! :)

Author Reply: ...but doesn't food heal all ills?

My mom seemed to think so.

Thanks!

Hai TookReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/20/2005
What a good dog! Pippin doesn't even realise how long he has been gone, but Lop is taking excellent care of him. I did love this "Many were the childish secrets whispered into his ears, and he never told a soul." Hm, has this Man made an appearance in your stories before? At first I thought perhaps it was Jack, but the name he used was Robin so I suppose not...

Oh dear, that must have been crushing for the family to think Ferdi was better then for him not to be. I hope his mother gets there soon and that Ferdi's healing is quick and painless. Poor Merry, to feel so responsible! I'm sure he is feeling really bad!

Looking forward to more! Hoping it is soon!

Author Reply: (Actually, it *is* Jack, he's just going by a slightly different name at the moment.)

More is due any time now. Thanks!

Mysterious JediReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/19/2005
looking forward to more

<>< Saved from sin through Christ,
mj

Author Reply: More coming soon. Just hammering out a few dents.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/19/2005
Self confident, isn't he, that young Pippin. I suppose his age excuses him from being described as dumb. But he is lucky - even if he doesn't realise it. Good thing Lop's protective instincts make him ignore the young one's instructions to go home. Good thing that the passing conjurer - (Robin son of Jack, rather than Jack son of Robin? Are we looking at someone rather lacking in originality when it comes to aliases?) - is helpfully inclined. The as-yet-unnoticed missing Pippin might well get out of this without even noticing that he has been in danger.

Ferdi's condition sounds worrying - especially if his mother's been sent for. Woodruff might just be being cautious, but there again . . . Good thing I know Ferdi survived this to endure a good deal more. Poor Nell. She feels so guilty - she'll probably want to punch him on the nose when he recovers. Just to relieve her feelings.

I don't know what Bilbo will think if Pippin ever arrives on his doorstep. But at least he is less likely to think that Robin has deliberately stolen Pippin away than most hobbits.

Author Reply: Lacking in originality? Or perhaps prudent. It behooves a man to be able to remember to give the right name at the right time.

I imagine that he might very well have recognised Healers' 7yo Pippin in Glisters' 6yo Faramir... Perhaps that's one of the clues, not just Diamond murmuring "Pippin" in her sleep, that led him to discover he had the wife and son of the Thain in his keeping.

Punch him on the nose, just to relieve her feelings. Yes. That sounds like Our Nell.

Bilbo, I think, won't immediately jump to conclusions. But remember, this is in a time when Men could freely enter the Shire. Besides the occasional skulking Ranger there may well have been peddlers, minstrels, and other such travellers, and not a lot of ruffians.

BeruthielReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/18/2005
*Fangirly shriek*

Wandering conjurer! Would this be Jack from "All That Glisters"? I wonder if they remember this encounter when their paths cross again decades later.

Poor Ferdi. (Will we never tire of saying that?)

Author Reply: You betcha.

It would be fun to listen in on Pippin's meeting with Jack, after the Epilogue chapter of Glisters.

Poor Ferdi, indeed. The Muse, even, is not so eager for Ferdi-angst as used to be. Instead she keeps spinning scenes, lately, of him lying on a hillside, head in Nell's lap, watching the stars, or in their sitting room, holding his hands up in the air and far enough apart to hold a skein of wool while Nell rolls the yarn into a ball. Cosy, comfortable, loving, domestic scenes.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/18/2005
Ah, Pippin you scamp! What do you know of what your parents think?

Glad this is one Lop trusts. Hope he gets Pippin safely to Bilbo's place.

Author Reply: He's a good Man, for the most part. As likely as most to make a foolish decision once in awhile, but for the most part he's walking the straight and narrow.

It's funny, but one of my brothers had a unique quality: Alsatian dogs hated him. Our Dad swore that it must have something to do with the way he smelled to the dogs, something people wouldn't notice but dogs would. He was bitten at least three times by three different Alsatians, and in each case he was minding his own business. Another time I was bitten in the face by an Alsatian who was lunging for this brother, and I was in the way, for I'd been petting the dog and it was quietly lying down, enjoying the attention until my brother walked up to us.

Anyhow, Robin is one of those people that dogs instinctively like.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/18/2005
Pippin seems to have all the luck in the world - and doesn't even notice!
First of all, good old Lop is protecting him. And when Pippin turns in the wrong direction (which Lop cannot hinder), Robin appears. Robin is very interesting and mysterious. Maybe, he's a Ranger?

Ferdi however is getting worse. If he really dies, how will Merry and Pimpernel react? It won't be easy to overcome the feeling of guilt.

But as Woodruff said: "While there's breath, there's life".

Author Reply: Robin is not a Ranger. He's a wanderer and storyteller and he uses his little "tricks" to please an audience and gain enough coin for a meal or two in each place he visits. Sometimes he has to work for his living, and then he works hard, but eventually the wanderlust kicks in again and he's off. In his lifetime he'll wander all over the North-land, and I think after the War he makes it as far as Gondor before turning back to the North, though of course he can no longer enter the Shire that he loves, once the King's Edict is put in place.

Poor Merry and Pimpernel! Ferdi had really better recover, for their sakes.

SlightlyTookishReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/18/2005
Great chapter! I loved Lop and Robin, and seeing the magic tricks delight Pippin so much. But poor Ferdi, it doesn't seem very good for him right now.

Author Reply: Thanks! Lop and Robin make good guardians, I think.

ArielReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/18/2005
At least you've used a different Ranger. From most fics, you'd get the impression that Strider was the only one who was ever in the Shire. LOL! Good work - enjoying it.

Author Reply: LOL! Actually he's not a Ranger. In Bilbo's time there was nothing preventing Men from entering the Shire, and so why not a wandering conjurer, or a minstrel, or a peddler? (Of course, the number of ruffians increased after Bilbo left, but I don't think there were so many renegade Men entering the Shire at this point in time.)

And *was* Strider *in* the Shire before the Quest? I know some have written him that way... but is there anything in canon that says so for certain? I know Rangers watched the borders, per Gandalf's request, but I didn't get the impression they were all that commonly seen--though the Man Woodruff ran into, while herb-gathering, was likely a Ranger, and might even have been protecting her from a renegade Man without her knowledge, who knows?

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 35 on 7/18/2005
*GREAT BIG HUGE GRIN*

Now *this* I was *not* expecting! How wonderful to see Jack! I hope he'll not be in trouble for "making off" with the lad! Or will they encounter Bilbo and Frodo en route?

Ferdi passing blood? Not a good sign, though since he does survive, I'm assuming something like a bruised kidney.

Poor Merry and poor Nell, both of them suffering from unnecessary guilt.

Author Reply: Hah! You made my day, recognising Jack. I was hoping he'd be recognisable, anyhow, even though he's a young Man, probably in his 20s?

You're right about the kidney. Painful, scarey, but survivable. Obviously, or the Ferdi in the "Interludes" would be a ghost or namesake! LOL.

That unnecessary guilt is awful stuff.

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