[Novnarwen]

Hedgar

Hedgar stood listening to everything. He had seen Miz Andreth claiming that these bandits were not as cruel as everyone had imagined. At first, Hedgar had laughed, looking at his wife, his eyes rolling.

"Bandits are bandits," he had whispered into Rosie's ear. Fippi, who had also eagerly followed the conversation, was quiet.

Every so often, Hedgar noticed though that his son looked alarmingly around. At first Hedgar assumed he was looking for Miz Andreth, but realised soon enough that his boy was a caring hobbit and was more eager to know how the other children and women were doing. "Are they going to die?" Fippi asked innocently, looking up and into his father's deep eyes.

Rosie shrugged, looking at Hedgar too, expecting him to answer the question. By this, the male hobbit felt awkward. Of course they wouldn't die, he thought at first, rubbing his head with his hand. Fippi grew inpatient and looked desperately at his father.

"Well," Hedgar muttered. "The..." he started. "The Mayor and... The others... will..." Hedgar couldn't speak properly. First of all, the question had come as a surprise, and now he didn't know what to say! Second, why was it his job to answer? He looked at Rosie, starting with a bitter look, but saw his wife's reaction and turned it into a friendly look. "Well, sonny," he said after a while. "The Mayor and the others will do the right thing," he said with determintion, not knowing if he had lied or not.

***

A few moments had passed; Fippi stood still silently by Rosie and Hedgar, watching the crowd and the Hobbits' arguments filling the air. Hedgar exchanged worried looks with Rosie, who eagerly tried to jump up and down to get a better look of what was going on. It seemed to be going rather well, or so she thought and explained to Hedgar.

"What does 'well' mean?" Hedgar asked grumpily, yawning. Rosie frowned, and explained again that it was going well, "For the children and women," she said. Hedgar didn't undersand at first, but guessed it would be going well in the manner of bringing the women and children into town, taking care of them. Fippi gave a satisfying smile, and insisted on helping when time came.

"Sure," Hedgar sorted, waving Fippi off. The father had never in his wildest dreams imagined his boy staying up so late to do other than climbing trees.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 8:54 AM February 08, 2004: Message edited by: Novnarwen ]