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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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2,123
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1/1
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10
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These Treasures

Summary:

There is a thunderstorm, but it's not like Merry is afraid or anything.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

The sky flashed, lighting the whole room. It was quick and quiet and would have gone unnoticed by any young Hobbits who were fast asleep in their beds. Merry, however, was not fast asleep and he *did* notice. The room turned a shade of purple before falling once more into blackness.

Merry chewed on his lower lip while he contemplated how this thunderstorm was just one more thing to be mad about today. It had started that afternoon when Bilbo had caught Merry in his private study, flipping through some of his books.

"You are not old enough to handle books of this magnitude. There was a lot of care put into these treasures and they don't need to be ruined by grubby little Hobbit-lad fingers," his uncle had snapped.

It had made Merry a bit madder at his Uncle Bilbo when Frodo had been allowed to have a cup of ale at supper and Merry had been forced to drink milk.

And of course the greatest offence, bedtime. Why were grown-ups always making him go to bed when he wasn't even tired? Just because Uncle Bilbo was tired and wanted to go to bed didn't mean that Merry should have to. It was understandable that Bilbo needed to go to sleep, he was old after all. But Merry was not an elderly Hobbit, nor was he a child. (He had grown quite persistent about that lately, attempting to prove his point that he was not a child by stomping his feet and throwing various sorts of temper tantrums.)

Merry seemed to have conveniently forgotten that he was only eleven years old and had a good twenty-two years before he came of age. He was quite certain that he was old enough to decide his own bedtime. Why just yesterday Uncle Bilbo had let Merry take a puff of his pipe. Certainly that must make him old enough to decide his own bedtime. Once again Merry was forgetting important information, such as the fact that he coughed until he turned blue in the face after smoking that pipe, not to mention the unthinkable things that his father would do to Bilbo if he ever found out.

So it was that Merry found himself tossing and turning in bed, kicking at his covers in irritation and scowling at the wind and rain outside his window.

Now the thunder came - a loud boom followed by a long low rumble. Merry made a small squeaking noise and pulled his covers back up to his chin.

The lightning came again; three quick flashes of light one right after the other. Merry reached out blindly in the settling darkness and found his stuffed doll on the pillow beside him. He wished he had a candle in his room so that he could see the doll, a small yellow and brown hound named Muggsy. Muggsy had long-brown ears, brown circles around his eyes, a brown nose and a few brown spots on his back. The rest of him was a deep yellow, like the mustard Merry's mother made. One of the hound's ears was only hanging on by a thread from where Merry had clutched it as he ran about Brandyhall trying to keep up with his older cousins. Muggsy's tail was frayed and flatten from where Frodo (Muggsy's previous owner) had chewed on him during many sleepless nights.

Thunder boomed again and Merry was sure that the window had rattled. Lightning followed almost at once. Frodo had once told Merry that lightning was really the Valar giving us all a firework show. Merry tried to quiet his heavy breathing by repeating to himself in a soft whisper, "It's just nice fireworks, just nice fireworks, nice fireworks..."

Then the nice fireworks sounded off and this time Merry was *sure* the windows had rattled. Merry's mother had told him that the best way to relax during a storm was to close his eyes and let the rain lull him to sleep. Merry was quite sure that there must not be any thunder in any storm his mother had experienced, but he decided to give it a shot anyway. After all, Merry found that his mother tended to be right about most things.

He closed his eyes and listened to the rain. It was restful. The wind was making a whistling noise that made almost a melodic song out of the whole affair. Merry felt himself relaxing, loosening his grip on Muggsy and starting to nod off.

Then the thunder came again.

Merry's head whipped up and his eyes flew open. He shook all over while trying to remember all the tricks he could use to get through storms like this.

/Crawl into bed with Mum and Da./

/No, you are at Uncle Bilbo's. There is no Mum and Da here./

/Crawl into bed with Frodo?/

/Fine, if you are trying to prove to him that you are, in fact, a child after all./

Merry scowled at himself for acting so silly. Then he remembered something one of his cousins had told him.

*If you count the beats between the lightning and the thunder, you can tell how far away the storm is.*

So Merry, clutching Muggsy to his chest, waited until the room lit up once more.

One.

Two.

Three.

BOOM

/Three miles. That's really not far enough away for my liking./

Lightning flashed again, flickered out, and flashed one more time.

One.

Two.

BOOM

/It's getting closer./

Merry pulled the covers up over his head. This new idea didn't seem to be helping at all. Merry heard a loud crack outside and his mind flashed to the only thing it could be, a tree coming down.

/The trees are all going to come down on top of us!/

Lightning lit the room again and the thunder didn't wait for it to black out before echoing off inside of Merry's ears.

And that was when Meriadoc Brandybuck, of the great age of eleven summers, who had smoked his first pipe the previous day, cried out and crawled the rest of the way under his covers, clutching his stuffed hound as tight as he could.

The next round of lightning even lit up the small space under Merry's covers where he lay huddled with Muggsy.

"One," he whispered out loud.

BOOM

The storm wasn't just getting closer, it was *here*. Right here out in Uncle Bilbo's garden. Crashing trees down and pulling up all of the Gaffer's flowers.

This time the lightning and thunder came at the same time, and suddenly proving that he was not a child didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered to Merry was getting to Frodo's room as fast as his little legs could carry him.

*****

Frodo was lying in his bed, face down and smushed into the pillow, with another pillow lying over-top of his head. He had kicked his covers off because of the humidity and was now so fast asleep that he didn't realize how much the temperature had dropped. A lone candle still burned on the bedside table.

He was enjoying a good, sound sleep when something starting nagging in the back of his mind. Frodo tried to push it away and settle back into his darkness, but the waking world was calling him. Groggily Frodo rolled over and peeked out from under his pillow.

Merry was standing by the side of the bed. He was wearing one of Frodo's nightshirts that was two sizes too big on him, and Merry's little hands had disappeared inside the sleeves. He was clutching Muggsy while he chewed on his lower lip and stared wide-eyed at Frodo with fright.

Frodo pushed the pillow off his head and looked at his little cousin. "What's the matter then, Merry?"

The room lit up with lightning and the thunder rumbled just outside the window. Merry squeaked and covered his eyes with the stuffed hound.

"Are we having a storm?" Frodo asked.

Merry nodded his head, but didn't move Muggsy away from his face.

"A good spring rain," Frodo said calmly. "The Gaffer will be pleased with that."

Merry peaked out over the top of Muggsy, and Frodo smiled at him.

Frodo swung his legs out of bed and looked very seriously at Merry. "I have to go check and make sure all the windows are shut up properly, Merry."

Merry's eyes looked panicked and his brow crinkled up, but he made no noise.

Frodo stood up, his bare feet hitting the floor softly. "I'll be right back, Merry, I promise." Frodo lifted Merry up onto his bed. "Now be a good lad and keep my bed warm for me."

Merry grabbed Frodo's arm and looked pleadingly at him.

"I promise, I'll be right back." Frodo ruffled Merry's hair and left the room.

*****

When Frodo came back into his bedroom, after shutting all the windows up, he found Merry laying on the bed. He was on his side facing away from the window. Muggsy was pressed tightly to his chest and a pillow was over his face. Frodo almost thought he was asleep but then he caught the slight shaking of Merry's legs.

Climbing onto the bed, Frodo pulled the covers back up and scooted over closer to Merry. Laying down on his side to face his cousin, Frodo lifted the pillow just enough to stick his head under and join Merry.

"How are we doing under here?" Frodo asked him.

Merry blinked his eyes a few times while continuing to chew on his lower lip. At last he answered, "Did you close all the windows?"

"Yes, everything is nice and dry now, thank you."

Merry nodded and snuggled in closer to Frodo.

Thunder and lightning echoed around the two hobbits huddled together in the big bed. Frodo stroked Merry's curls a few times and then reached down and rubbed his hand along Muggsy.

"Faithful ol' Muggsy," Frodo said wistfully. "He always was good company in a thunder storm."

Merry nodded. "I thought maybe you might be needing him tonight, that's why I came in here."

"Oh? Well, that was very thoughtful of you, Merry."

Lightning flashed, and if Merry had been counting, he would have reached *two* before the thunder sounded off.

"I was mean to Uncle Bilbo tonight. I yelled at him and acted like a child."

Frodo sighed. "That poor old Hobbit does put up with a lot of nonsense from us youngsters, doesn't he?"

"I shouldn't have acted like that."

The room lit up again.

"I'm sure Uncle Bilbo will forgive you, sweetheart. But if you want to act like a grown-up then you should apologize to him in the morning."

The thunder rumbled, mixed with a far off cracking sound.

"The trees are coming down outside, you know," Merry told Frodo in all seriousness.

Frodo stifled a laugh. "I'm not so sure it's actual trees, Merry. I think it's just a branch or two."

"Oh." Merry went quiet for a minute as another round of thunder echoed off, though it now sounded farther away than the last time. "Branches can't break through the top of the Hill, can they?"

"I've yet to see it happen, sweetie."

"All right then."

Now the storm was just a breeze and a light rainfall.

"I think the worst of it is over," Frodo said.

Merry relaxed a little in the space where he had snuggled into Frodo's embrace. "It could come back later though."

Frodo nodded. "That is true." Frodo said nothing more and instead waited for Merry to speak.

Finally he heard Merry sigh and felt his cousin shift in his arms.

"I suppose I should be going back to my room now," Merry whispered into the night.

"If you want. But you are welcome to stay here in my room, Merry."

Merry rolled over and met Frodo's eyes. "Really?"

"Really."

"And it'll be just like before? At Brandyhall? Before you left?"

Frodo kissed his cousin's forehead. "Just like before, sweetie."

"Well, I am rather comfortable in here," Merry replied.

The candle flickered in the breeze and then went out.

Frodo smiled into the darkness. "You're here now, you might as well share a pillow with me."

Frodo pulled the covers up until they were both tucked in nice and proper. He snuggled in closer to Merry so that the pillow covered both their heads.

He heard Merry yawn.

The room fell silent then, the only sound the light fall of rain outside. Just as Frodo began to drift off, Merry spoke. "I wasn't scared, you know. I only thought maybe you needed Muggsy."

Frodo reached out and grasped Merry's hand that still held the brown and yellow hound. "I know, sweetheart. I know."

*****

THE END

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author The Artful Dodger.
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