eldalieva
STILL Servant of the
Secret Frodo!
Registered: Apr
2002
Location: Losin' it. Oh wait, LOST it.
Posts:
60 |
The weather
has kindly agreed to comply with this somber anniversary...it
is now overcast and blustery here, too!
Elda hacks
off a chunk of fruitcake and settles down by the
fireplace.
What? I happen to like this
stuff!
PS: If anyone finds this font hard to read, let
me know. I'm fond of it myself, but you never can tell.
On October 6, Part
Three
“Sam…wake up,” I whispered.
“What,” he
said sleepily. “What is it?”
“Frodo is sick…will you
come sit with him? I think it will do him good.”
Sam
was instantly awake and alert. “What day is this?”
“October 6,” I answered, and I did not need to explain
any further. Sam rose immediately and we returned to Frodo’s
room.
In the faint light of the candle that I held
aloft, we looked down at Frodo, staring sightlessly, gasping
with cold and pain.
“Why is he still so sick? I
thought he was healed of all his ills!”
“He is healing,
but slowly. It was a grievous wound, and not only to the
body.” The red star suddenly came to my mind, and brought with
it an unbidden and unwanted thought. And the evil that
inflicted it will never be wholly gone from this world. But I
did not speak this out loud.
“I know,” Sam sighed. “I
was there.”
He kneeled by the edge of the bed. He took
Frodo’s rigid left hand and kissed it and laid it on his
breast, then set his own warm hand on Frodo’s forehead.
“Frodo, can you hear me? I know you can hear me. It’s your
Sam, Frodo. Frodo?”
Frodo turned blindly to the sound
of his voice. “Sam…it’s so dark…where is Strider…where are the
others?”
“There, there,” he said reassuringly. “Don’t
you worry about anything. Everyone is all right.”
“We
have to go now! We have to get away from here before they come
back!”
“They’re not coming back, Frodo, they’re all
gone. Let them go.”
“Let them…? Sam…is that really
you?” he asked, his voice suddenly suspicious with fear. “Why
can’t I see you?”
“It’s nothing Frodo, it’s just dark,
and that’s all.”
“But it’s so cold…”
“I know,
Frodo. I know.”
Frodo took a deep breath, the distress
on his face easing. Sam stroked Frodo’s cheek and smiled, and
his face glowed with compassion and love. Frodo had spoken of
Sam for years, so fondly that I felt I knew him long before I
ever met him in the flesh. I had witnessed their joy at their
reunion, that sunny day only a week ago, on the quay at
Avallonë. As I sat beside him, I could feel Sam’s love; it
shone forth from his face, it seemed to resonate from him. I
understood well, for I loved Frodo with a depth and an
entirety that still astonished me. Yet Sam was bound to Frodo
in a way that I could never be. Sam had walked with him
through the depths of hell, and the power of his own love had
been strong enough to shield them both. Sam had saved Frodo’s
life, and perhaps his soul as well. The image of the red star
came briefly to my mind, then was gone. It was irrelevant.
There could be no force in this world as strong as such love.
I touched Sam’s arm. “He responds to your touch and
your voice. I knew that he would.”
Sam smiled. “He
needs to feel us near him, when he’s like this. It’s the only
thing that helps.”
“Sam, stay here tonight. We should
sleep here with him.”
“Of course. That’s what he needs.
It’s the best medicine in the world.”
Sam and I turned
him over onto his right side, but as gentle as we were with
him, he still cried out.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Sam said
under his breath. “Don’t take on so. Just give us a moment,”
and I could not suppress a smile at his tender, fatherly tone.
I lay down behind Frodo, cradling him against myself,
and Sam lay down before him. Between us we wrapped him into a
warm embrace. His body was so cold against mine that a shiver
ran through me, and when I rested my cheek against the back of
his neck, I could feel his chill on my face. Even his hair was
cold. I looked at Sam, who placed his forehead against Frodo’s
and spoke to him in a hushed voice.
“How is that,
Frodo? How does that feel?”
Frodo swallowed and nodded.
“Better…warmer.”
“All right, well, we’re not going
anywhere. We won’t leave you.”
“No, don’t leave. It’s
so cold…and I can’t see…”
“Shh, shh, I know, but it
will pass, tomorrow you’ll be right as rain, you won’t even
remember this.”
“Tomorrow it will all be
over.”
“Yes, that’s right Frodo, and you’ll be yourself
again.”
“Tomorrow we’ll reach the mountain and it will
be over, at last. I am glad. I am so tired.”
“No,
Frodo, there is no mountain. Tomorrow you’ll wake up in your
own bed, safe and sound.”
“Oh, Sam, you’re wrong. I am
tired and sick and I am ready for this to end.”
“Now,
Mr. Frodo,” Sam began, and I was surprised to hear him lapsing
back into this formal address. His voice was thick and I saw
tears standing in his eyes, reflecting the fire’s dying light.
“You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re fine and you’re
safe now.” He reached up and caressed Frodo’s cheek.
“Finally.”
Frodo sighed and lay quietly for a moment,
only shivering. He seemed to be asleep, when he began to hum,
very softly.
“What is that, Mr. Frodo? That sounds
familiar.”
Frodo said nothing, only continued to hum,
and then began to sing words in a low, wavering voice.
“…above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars for
ever dwell…”
“I remember, Mr. Frodo. I remember.” And
Sam sang with him.
“I will not say the Day is
done…”
I lay and listened to them singing, here in this
quiet room, in this warm bed, singing words they had last
shared in a far different place, under the shadow of death.
Tears came to my eyes and I pressed my face against Frodo’s
icy shoulder.
Frodo trailed off and Sam finished the
last line.
“…nor bid the Stars farewell.”
And
we lay in perfect silence.
I felt Frodo’s breathing
become deep and steady. He was asleep. I looked at Sam, across
the shadowy halo of Frodo’s curls between us.
“He’s
asleep,” Sam whispered.
“I know.” I lifted Sam’s hand
from Frodo’s cheek and kissed it and lay it down again. “Thank
you.”
“It weren’t anything,” he said. He looked back at
his dear friend’s sleeping face. “It weren’t nothing at
all.”
The End
(The song quoted here is
from "Return of the King: The Tower of Cirith Ungol." But I'm
sure you all know that!)
__________________
It was an April
morning when they told us we should go
And as I turned to
you, you smiled at me
How could we say no?
Oh, the fun
to have, to live the dreams we always
had...
--Plant/Page
Blue---blue---as if that sky let
fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.
--William Cullen
Bryant; as posted by TolkienHead
Last edited by
eldalieva on 10-06-2002 at 03:54 PM
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10-06-2002 11:21 AM
I have never
really been a Haremite, just a Haremite-lover. And I will
never be happy where the Haremites do not feel warmed and
welcomed. Never. Such a world is not a good world, and if I
cannot change it, I will have none of it.
)
Heresy!
I don't
know who was there before but they left behind some worn
couches and a battered TV/DVD combo.... 
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