Moving On...

Well, after they had all recovered from my little joke I played on them (I'd been planing that since I got the invitation for this trip!), Aldarion said we should be moving on. Lady Rosriel protested a bit, saying she'd promised her cousin Lady Elena that we'd all stay right here, but Aldarion says that since she is with his brother and Elrond's sons, she should have no trouble catching up with us. So now we've reached the west of the river and have got to a steep sided canyon, and we is camping out here for today.

After we had made camp and got the supper cooking over a fire, Aldarion told us about the first and only hobbit ranger.

"A ranger that was a hobbit?" exclaimed Elanor. "Why I never knew that! What was his name? Where did he live?"

Aldarion smiled. "He was called Trotter by many. His real name, if I recall correctly, was Peregrine Boffin."

"Peregrine Boffin!" I said. "Why I remember hearing tales of him! They say that one day he vanished off into the blue and was never seen again."

"He was indeed seen again, but not by any of the hobbits in the Shire." Aldarion continued, "He went about wandering the lands north of the Shire. He was lean and lanky for a hobbit, not to mention brave and hardy, so when he met up with some of the Rangers, he fit right in with their style of life. Eventually he wandered over the Misty Mountains, and traveled down toward what was then Mirkwood, and the hidden fortress of Sauron."

"Indeed it was," Rosriel spoke up. "That part of the forest in now finally clean and beautiful again. Now that hear this tale, I remember hearing of a hobbit named Trotter, though he never came to the home of the elven king."

"He did not," Aldarion agreed, "for he was captured by Sauron, then known as the Necromancer. It is not known exactly what happened to him, but when he was finally released, he began to wear wooden shoes on his feet, something hobbits never do. It has been said that he was tortured, or even that the shoes were actually replacements for his feet."

"But what happened to him then?" I inquired eagerly. "Where did he go to? What did he do?"

"He traveled about Middle Earth, doing the duties of a Ranger, until he perished in the Mines of Moria."

We all sat there in quiet, thinking about the tale we had just been told.

"Well, that's a proper eye opener and no mistake," I said. "I had no idea that a hobbit had ever been on of those Ranger folk. That was sad though, how he came to a sad end in the mines. I wish he'd been able to settle down again someday, or come back to the Shire."

"He died living the life he loved, the life of a Ranger." Aldarion spoke quietly.

I shook my head. "Well, thank you for that story sir. I bet my granddad Pippin would love to hear it. He is in Minas Tirith now." I looked up smiling. "If we make it as far as there, I'll tell it to him, if he ain't heard it already."

Aldarion's face became grave. "Samdo," he spoke quietly. "Come with me. There is something I must tell you."



--- Master Samdo, 16 miles