They ate happily for a while, then Ama realised that they should be getting home. It would certainly take a long time to walk all the way they had sailed, and surely the storm had swept them a further distance down the stream. She waited till the others had finished up and then spoke.
“We should be getting on our way,” this was directed at Old Bill who sat next to Ben while chewing on the remains of one of the fish herself and Ferd had caught. “You know the way back to the Shire?” she asked him.
He threw down the fish bones and looked up at Ama, replying gruffly, “Yes, ’course I do, do you want me to show you?”
“We would like that very much,” Ben smiled up at him, but Old Bill seemed absolutely disgusted at him.
So the hobbits stamped out the fire, collected a few weapons, sticks, stones and threw the remains of the food back into the river. There was no point keeping them as they would quickly go stale, and then they would end up contracting a fever of some sort. Ama only hoped there would be food further upstream. But she was mistaken.
Old Bill started to lead them off downstream. As they continued to walk Ama nudged Ferd, “Aren’t we heading in the wrong direction?” Ferd nodded. “Hey, Bill,” she shouted out towards the leader, “ Isn’t the Shire that way,” she said pointing back upstream. The other hobbits agreed, nodding with concerned faces.
“You would think that,” Old Bill replied, “But I know a short cut,” and he tapped his nose and continued to lead them downstream.
[ June 17, 2003: Message edited by: Arien ]
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"...still, we lay under the emptiness and drifted slowly outward, and somewhere in the wilderness we found salvation scratched into the earth like a message."
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