Well, finally here it is – the Pippin/Diamond story I’ve hinted at for so long. For those who’ve read When We Have Fears you already got a little taste of what’s to come, and for those who are reading my Merry/Estella story Flowers, Gems And Estella, this is going to be concurrent with that. So read on, and enjoy!
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A Light In Dark Places – Chapter I
Careful not to wake the inhabitants of the hole, most of which were still asleep in the early morning hours, Diamond Took rose from her bed, and carefully made her way towards the circular window in her bedroom – slowly inching open the glass pane, she detected the faint smell of smoke on the September air, but could not see the fires from which they came. The faraway pinpricks of light of the rebelling hobbits, shaking off their backs the chains of repression, placed there by the Ruffians. She had no possible way of knowing that their regime was coming to an end – they were most powerful in the East and West Farthings, and had barely touched her little village of Long Cleeve, thinking it not worth their time. The families of the Thain and the Master of Buckland were the ones they were after, the ones to suffer most – distant family of hers, but still kin.
Even the Ruffians themselves were a dark mystery to her – she had only ever seen any of them once or twice, and had never wanted to repeat the experience. They’d been taller than any other hobbit she’d ever seen, over five feet, with long, greasy hair and dark stubble on their chins, above which misshapen noses were and bleak, lifeless eyes. Most of the ones she’d seen looked the same, and they were mostly all dressed in black, with long swords – disgusting beings with no honor whatsoever. Beings that had no right to be in their Shire at all.
The darkened landscape of the North Farthing at that moment looked calm and peaceful – trees swayed gently in the nighttime breeze, the black hills in the distance blending with the dimly lit sky overhead. The stars above her glittered beautifully like diamonds, the most precious of all jewels – and her namesake. You were named for them, my Diamond, she could hear her grandmother’s gentle voice saying in a soothing tone – you were named for the stars, because it is like them that you shine, even in the darkest night. She smiled to herself, remembering the fairy tales told to her in her youth – magical princesses and beautiful orphans, swords with inspiring names that strike fear into the hearts of evil, a faithful steed to carry the hero to his lady fair.
Like something out of those stories was the insight she felt, though she could not explain how she knew that something extraordinary was going on, far to the South – it was a clash of wills, of hobbits against men, one side fighting for freedom, the other for power – she could not have known and would never see the struggle going on, but could somehow sense the encounter. Forces that were nowhere near her, but would ultimately decide the fate of her family – as if in response to her pondering, a great wind blew, ruffling her hair through the open window and blowing it about her face – a new wave of smoke met her nose, stronger than ever, as if the forces were coming closer. But more than the smoke was the very wind itself – the winds of change, blowing about the whole Shire at that very moment, on the faces of the grief-stricken hobbits that for months knew nothing but hardships. It was a stirring thought – but one that gave her much hope.
Such intuitions had she felt often in the past few months – as if forces far away, which had no effect on her, were struggling for power, and their pains were no different than the ones she felt. These instincts were never anything to concern her, though – a fleeting feeling of doom that passed from her mind as soon as she identified it, the memory of which could not pass. Great wars that took place between the people and places she’d read of in her books – men unlike those that now occupied her Shire, great and noble Men that fight for honor and truth, handsome kings that rule over their lands with a knowledgeable hand, whose honored guests were the graceful Elves of the far North, and the Dwarves of the Misty Mountains. Creatures that she would give anything to meet, to talk with, creatures from places she’d never seen – beautiful forests of perpetual green, great halls under snowcapped mountains –
“Diamond!” a shrill voice shrieked from the door of her bedroom. She looked around to see her mother, Camellia, dressed in a pale lavender gown and a stern expression on her face. Her arms were crossed in sleepy anger and her hair lay about her face in a disheveled mess. “Yeh needn’ be openin’ windows at all ‘ours of the nigh’ – yeh’ll be catchin’ yeh death from the cold!” Her mother rushed forward and wrenched the window closed with a loud squeak, the sound of which probably woke her up in the first place. Afterwards, she turned to her daughter, silently demanding an explanation for her after hour excursions.
“Sorry, Mum. I just – needed some air, was all.” She stood before her somewhat nervously, looking down at her feet, shuffling them on the wooden floor. “I suppose I just smelled something on the air, and opened the window to see what it was.”
Camellia sniffed the air slightly, and wrinkled her nose at the unwelcome smell. “Hmm – smells like smoke, I suppose, mus’ be from far away,” she said, looking out the window, “I don’ see any fires in the distance.”
“Actually,” Diamond said, as if mentioned some offhand subject, “I was thinking maybe it had something to do with the Ruffians – perhaps there’s something going on to the South.” After she’d said this, she looked to her mother, hopeful, that maybe she felt the intuition as well.
Her mother only shook her head though, dispelling the whimsical fantasies from her own head. “If there were somethin’ goin’ on, it would hardly affect us – we should consider ourselves lucky we’ve been left relatively untouched,” she said, wiping dust off the top of a bookshelf with her hand, “There are families down there who are sufferin’, and starvin’ – why, some of ‘em are bein’ locked up even!”
“Why don’t we help them, though? If we’re able, and we still live fairly safe up here, why can’t we do whatever we can to help those less fortunate? The hobbits here, they’ll do what Father says, they’ll listen to him!”
“Oh, Diamond – I would love nothin’ more than to expel those awful Ruffians from the Shire! But to do tha’, we would have to challenge ‘em – would you be willing to do tha’, when so many others apparently haven’?”
“But maybe they have! Maybe the smoke, it’s from some sort of battle – maybe they’re being liberated as we speak, Mother!”
“Tha’ is possible, my dear – but you must understand, we are nowhere near such places. Our little corner of the Shire may not be especially close to the rest of the population, but we are safe in our seclusion.” Noticing a book slightly out of place on the shelf she had dusted off just seconds before, she involuntarily pushed it back into place. “Now it’s time for you to sleep – it’s nearly dawn, my dear. Wha’ would lead you believe these notions, anyway?”
“Oh, just a feeling, I suppose – a feeling that something was happening.”
“Perhaps, Diamond – but are you sure tha’ you weren’ jus’ up too late at night, readin’ and fillin’ your head wit’ stories of nonsense?”
“They’re not nonsense, Mother,” she said, moving towards her bookshelf and taking a thick leather hardback from it. She flipped through the pages of it, the flowing script and beautiful illustrations catching her eyes.
Her mother took the book from her hands, and replaced it on the shelf. “Wha’ever they are, Diamond, it is time for you to sleep,” she said, smiling, and gave her daughter a gentle kiss on the forehead before retreating from the room.
Diamond sighed, and pulled back the covers on her bed before snuggling under their welcome warmth – she knew her mother was wrong, about her and everything. There is something going on, that smoke isn’t just coming from some accidental fire – great events are happening, and may even involve the lost travelers! The lost travelers, the brave deserters – whatever their reason for leaving the Shire, it must have been daring. Diamond often found herself wishing, that one day she could just drop everything and leave – not to leave the Shire permanently, but to go off and see new things, new places. To see the things she’d read of in her books, see them come to life before her eyes, and they would be even more amazing than the authors had described them. She knew they would, knew they had to be.
It had been many months since the disappearance of the four hobbits, most of which Diamond knew not – Peregrin Took, her cousin, was the only name she recognized from the conversation between the Thain and her father. “No one knows where they’ve gone.” Paladin had a sad look on his face as he said this – his own son, lost in the unknown wilderness, as well as his nephew – gone, but not forgotten.
They will return. It was the fault of another intuition that she knew this – her mind was charging at the moment, awake and alive because of something her eyes did not see, something her mind could not imagine. It seemed unfathomable that in her excited state she could ever sleep that night – but eventually, she fell into silent slumber, unaware of the forces at work in the world.