WHISPERS OF THE RING
Hot Oats in the Morning
Merry felt something wet run its way over his face. He batted at the air absently in his sleep and muttered, “Pip, go away.” The wetness traveled down his neck then slid down his body. He stirred closer to waking. “Pippiiiin, ‘m not ready to get up yet…” He batted again and made contact with something warm…and quite covered in fur. Merry, already being pulled unwillingly to surface from his dreams of jellied hogshead and creamy cheeses, reluctantly opened one eye to see what he was currently touching.
He bit back a scream, thought about it for a second and then loosed his lungs. “AIIII! A BEAR! GET UP GETUPGETUPGETUP!” The bear backed off for a moment, startled by the sudden noise, long enough for Merry to get his feet beneath him and roll the just waking Pippin over to Sam and Frodo who were sitting bolt upright trying to make sense of what Merry was screaming.
The bear roared at them. It filled the tiny space with breath tainted by the scavenging of dead flesh. Sam and Frodo clutched their blankets to their chins and shrieked. Merry hoisted Pippin to his feet and all four hobbits scrambled out from beneath the hanging pine branches and scurried for the nearest climbable tree.
The sun was quite high in the sky before they dared to descend from their lofty perches.
“I’m hungry.” Pippin complained.
“We’re ALL hungry, Pip.” Merry grumbled.
“Do you suppose he’s left us anything to eat?” Frodo asked as he looked on their scattered belongings.
Sam held up a rucksack with a large hole chewed in the side. “It doesn’t look hopeful, Mister Frodo. This one had our cheese in it.”
Pippin fell to the ground weeping. “Our cheese! Our fine, Hobbiton butter cheese! How can we go one without it? Where will we find our strength now without our cheese?”
Merry grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard. “Hold together, Pip! It was good cheese yes, but it’s not worth crying over! It was nearly finished anyways.”
Pippin fell on his friend with great, gasping sobs. “But I was looking forward to finishing it,” he cried. “An I wanted it melted on toasty bits for breakfast…”
There was silence as the hobbits all imagined what a tasty breakfast indeed that would have been.
“Ach, why do I always have to be the strong one?” Merry quipped. “Look Pip, gather yourself and let’s look for anything that big brute might have left us.”
“I’ve found some spilled oats!” Frodo announced gleefully. Hot oats were his very favorite breakfast food, too bad the bear ate their dried berries…they were really good in oats. “I’ll start some cooking.”
Pippin brightened at the prospect of breakfast being only a handful of minutes away. “Well then! Let’s go see what damage has been done, shall we?”
Merry twitched and clenched his hands reflexively. “You great poppy! You were having me on about the cheese!”
Pippin bounced away laughing. “You think I’m so weepy I’d go to pieces over a moldy bit of cheese, Merry? I’m made of much sterner stuff than that!”
Merry chased after Pippin, intent of some soft pummeling and hair mussing. “You wait until I get my hands on you, Took!”
“Noooo!” Sam suddenly cried out. “He’s gone and eaten all the sausage we had left! I thought I hung it high enough he couldn’t get it, but he went and ate it anyways!”
Pippin and Merry both stopped dead in their tracks. “No…sausage?”
“He ate our sausage?”
The two sausage loving hobbits collapsed on each other with wails of misfortune. “The BRUTE!” Pippin exclaimed through tears.
“What have we ever done to him?” Merry asked of the heavens. He wrapped his arms around Pippin and sobbed into his shoulder.
Sam looked sorrowful. “This is the end, it is. We might as well go back to Hobbiton.”
Frodo frowned. To have potential meals stolen was the best way to dishearten a hobbit. Still, he couldn’t abandon his Uncle to whatever fate his dreams were suggesting. “Well then, if you all don’t want to go on, feel free to go back to Hobbiton. But I won’t be joining you.” He stirred the hot oats and threw in a handful of spice. “This is the first hardship we’ve really faced, and I won’t back down in the face of it.” Not when there probably were worse hardships ahead of him.
Sam looked sheepish. “I’m sorry, Master Frodo. It’s just we haven’t the money to buy many more supplies at the big folks’ town. We were relying on our supplies holding out a while longer.”
“And,” Pippin joined in, “We weren’t expecting to be out of the Shire this long either. How much further is this place your Uncle mentioned, Frodo? Are we even close yet?”
Merry watched Frodo fidget with the spoon he was using to stir their breakfast. “Or, is it that you don’t quite know, Frodo?” He asked gently.
Frodo hung his head, “Oats look ready.” He mumbled. Pippin gave a delighted whoop and seemed to forget his earlier complaints. Sam, who had been cleaning their battered tin plates, handed around utensils and eagerly waited his turn at the pot.
Merry, being of exceptionally keen mind, was not distracted by the food. At least, he didn’t think he was until he had a plate of oats in his hands and a spoon in his mouth. Pippin and Sam were chatting amicably about Frodo’s skill with oats and Frodo himself was lost in thought. Merry opened his mouth to bring up the subject of their destination again when Frodo spoke first.
“I think we’re going to have to go to the Big Folks’ town and try to get supplies,” he said. “I know we haven’t much for money, but if we volunteer to help out on a farm, we may receive payment in goods; maybe a round of cheese and some sausage; or a loaf or some potatoes.” He played with his spoon then scooped a mouthful of oats.
“That sounds like a wonderful plan, Frodo!” Pippin chirped. “Me ‘n Merry can get us some vegetables if you ‘n Sam would get some cheese and meat.”
Sam looked stern. “No stealing from the Big Folks, Pip. They’ll likely chop you up for pig feed if they caught you. We’ll have to earn it all honestly. Won’t do to have Big Folks chasing after us.”
“The Big Folk tend to look at Hobbit-folk as children.” Merry put in. “If we explain our situation and play on that, they might be more generous with us. It’s worked for me in the past.”
Frodo swallowed his oats and spoke up, “A day, maybe two of work should get us enough food to last for another week or so, maybe two if we spend all our money.” Pippin and Sam nodded to each other happily. The promise of a better supper gave them light spirits.
Merry frowned, “But what about getting back to the Shire? If we press on much further, we won’t have the supplies to get back again.”
Everyone looked at Frodo expectantly. He fidgeted and dragged his spoon through his mostly uneaten oats. “Let’s worry about that once we have the supplies, okay? I shall have to think.”
Sam chewed on his lip then glared at Merry. “Don’t be so insensitive, Merry,” he hissed. “Master Frodo needs to find his uncle, he’s his only living relation you know.”
Merry had the grace to look a little guilty.
“That’s alright, Sam,” Frodo said. “This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. Maybe we should turn back.”
“Well, I like the idea of getting us some food. Let’s leave the thinking for when we’ve a good hot meal in our bellies!” Pippin was the epitome of good spirits with the thought of a hot supper in his head.
Frodo nodded. “Well, let’s gather what can be salvaged then head off to town.” The others stood and started arguing over whose turn it was to do dishes and which bit of cloth was whose undergarment. Frodo stared into his oats as if they were a divining tool.
“Oh Uncle, I hope you’re alright.”