Flowers, Gems And Estella - Chapter XXI
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Estella awoke upon feeling an extreme cold being gently applied to her swollen ankle – the cold was somehow comforting, as her mind came alive to remember the events of the previous evening. Her eyes opened to Celandine carefully applying a bag of ice to the purple bruise, eyeing it as if she did not envy Estella for it before noticing she’d awoken.
“You’re awake! Oh, you gave us such a fright last night!” She rubbed her eyes, which were still full of sleep – or the lack of – but her eyes held a content smile, as did her mouth below. “I suppose I look rather tried.”
“Yeah,” Estella said hoarsely, her voice scratchy with what sounded like a developing cold, “But I understand – you were worried about me.”
“Not as worried as Merry was,” Celandine said, smiling almost knowingly, “It was about an hour after you disappeared that I went to get Merry, and as soon as I said you were in the forest, he got his sword and armor, and hitched his pony and rode over as fast as he could. Mentha, Mellie and I were stationed at the hedge, watching to see if you’d come back, and it was I who first saw Merry coming through the trees with you – he rode up to the house, and carried you up here to my room without even being asked to so. Then he asked me to retrieved bandages and water, and just about anything he thought we would need – he demanded that we make sure nothing else was injured beyond your ankle, and thankfully nothing was.”
“Sounds like he was pretty obsessed – where is he now?”
“Well, when we were sure you’d be all right, he started off for Brandy Hall, but my mother insisted that he spend the night, and she made up a bed for him on the couch downstairs – fell right to sleep, I believe.”
“Is he still here?” Estella asked, with innocent intentions behind the inquiry.
Celandine looked up at her with raised eyebrows, smiling slyly. “Why yes, Estella, he is – and I shall get him for you, if you wish.”
“Oh no, I wouldn’t want you to wake him up on my account, it’s – it’s okay.”
“If it’s okay, then why did you stutter?” Celandine said, already halfway out the door. All that Estella heard after that were her feet rushing down the stairs and disappearing into the living room, to – she assumed – wake Merry from his much-deserved slumber.
Estella was laying there still, looking out the window onto the green expanse when Merry knocked softly on the door, and came sleepily into the room when Estella bid him enter – she could see in his eyes that he was still a great deal tired, but that he was readily awake and trying to overcome the slumber that still fatigued him. Celandine did not enter behind him.
“You look tired – I didn’t want for Celandine to wake you,” Estella said, not wishing to upset him.
“It’s okay,” he said, sitting down in the chair beside the window, and yawning said, “How are you?”
“I’m – fine, I think,” she said, moving her foot slightly to see if there was still feeling in it, “I suppose I should thank you, for what you did.”
“No trouble at all,” he said, waving his hand nonchalantly, “Although Celandine should have known better than to let you go in there. If she’d thought about the consequences of her actions – which she’s not famous for doing – I doubt she would have prompted you to enter the forest.”
“What’s so bad about it?” she asked, remembering what she had seen within – the great white wolf, and other fearful creatures.
“Well, it’s quite easy to lose your way in there – as you apparently did. Time seems to pass much more slowly, and nightfall seems to arrive much quicker than you expect it to.”
“Have you ever been in there?”
“Rather often, actually, but only far enough to collect firewood and such, where I can get out easily again – but I’ve only ever made an involved trek, such as you did, once. And I don’t wish to do it again.”
“When you disappeared, right?”
“Yes – Frodo, Sam, Pippin and I all went in, and it took us nearly four days to get out again on the other side. The trees in there seem to move, and have minds of their own – more than once I felt they had moved around to delay us on our route, and get us even more lost than we had started.”
“What all is in there – are there any creatures?”
“Why, did you see any?”
“Well, yes – I saw a white wolf, among other things. There was a fog that seemed to hang over the entire forest – and I only dissipated when you put your cloak around me.”
He leaned back in there, mulling his words over carefully. “Well, there are several answers to such a query as yours – first off, the wolf, you saw, was most likely not real. Not that there aren’t wolves in there, but I don’t think any of them are large and white as you described. They’re mostly brown and smaller, and I doubt there’s too many of them left.”
“Then what did I see?”
“Well, I think it all has to do with where I found you – I asked Celandine where you had entered the forest, and ran forward as I thought you must have. After about an hour, since I couldn’t exactly tell how long, I turned around and attempted to find my way back, and I figured you must have – not really wanting to go back but instead allowing the forest to take me where it may. It lead me, as I hoped it would, in a southwestern direction, toward the Withywindle River valley, where they say all the queerness of the forest originates. And in that direction, near to the valley, are something called the Barrow-downs, home to the Barrow-wights.”
“Barrow-wights?”
“Basically the dead remains of the great kings of long ago – you were very close to them, which I suppose is why you saw constant fog. And whereas you were not close enough to be completely susceptible to the Barrow-wights, they could still make you – see things, fearful things I suppose. I myself have never seen a Barrow-wight, but have been uncomfortably close to one – in this case, you were definitely lucky to have not strayed any further that you already had.”
“How did you escape them?”
“Tom Bombadil, a man who lives in the forest, rescued us – oh, not a regular man, like there are in Bree, the ones that don’t take too kindly to hobbits – no, Tom is quite old, older than us hobbits, older than the evil that once had a hold over lands faraway. In fact, it was with his help that I was able to find you – he alerted me to your presence. Apparently, you had run by him, rather frightful he said you were, and as he put it, it was impossible not to hear your thrashing.”
“What’s this evil that you talked about?”
He stopped short again, weighing his words carefully. “If I told you the whole story about what happened to us, in its entirety, you and I would be here for many days – even a condensed version would take a while to tell, and it would not do the events justice. Let it suffice, though, that there was once a great evil that held sway over the land, a greater evil than any you can imagine – though this evil barely touched our Shire, we were not completely unharmed, as you saw during the Occupation. But thanks to the efforts of many brave men and elves – not to mention a wizard, a few hobbits and a dwarf – that evil is no more.”
“You met elves?” Estella said, sitting up in bed, eager to hear more.
“Yes, and it is from them that the cloak you spoke off came – the one that dissipated the fog, as it has magical powers, coming from the Lady Galadriel of Lórien. In the far North, they have settlements that, had I not known of the Shire, I would think were the most beautiful in the entire world. Even so, they do rival us in tranquility, and the food is nothing short of exquisite. A nice retreat for weary travelers, but still no match for the Shire.”
“Sounds nice to visit – I should like to see it.”
“Though not at the moment, I must admit – while I’m sure Lord Elrond would be more than able to fix that ankle, the journey is no easy trek, even for I. The world is still inhabited by the evil we worked so hard to destroy – minions, free of their dark lord’s regime. Our Shire is still the only place in which I feel truly safe, what with the expulsion of men by Lord Aragorn.”
“Who’s he?”
Merry chuckled heartily. “You’re just a mess of questions this morning, aren’t you? I promise you, Estella, one day you will know the full tale of what happened to us – what we did, where we went, who we met – which I’m certain will only lead to more questions, as is rightly so. You only think that these faraway lands have no effect on you, and that our Shire has played a minuscule role in the destruction of the One Ring, when actually it could not have been done without us. Events of such importance effect us all, and someday, you will know the whole truth.”
And he exited the room, leaving her there with more questions than she had answers.