Sailing Away RPG

[Kitanna]

“We don’t have to, but I think that we should try to cross the Withywindle tonight.” Sondo said.

Marroc cast a weary eye to Sondo. Hadn't Gandalf advised against crossing the Withywindle at night? Wouldn't they be safer trying to cross in the daylight. He looked to his other companions, but he could not tell what they thought of crossing now.

"Maybe we should wait," Marroc said, "We've had some bad luck this trip and I don't want to end it like this. Not when we're so close to home. We are all going to be in a lot of trouble as it is, so what's another day to our punishment?"

Marroc feel silent, hoping desperately Sondo would take that into consideration. He knew everyone just wanted to get home, but if they took the chance and crossed now they might never make it.

[Crystal Heart]

Sam had come to the end of his attention span. Yes, he wanted desperately to get back home. He couldn't exactly recall when he had had a decent meal last. Yet, the young hobbit knew that Gandalf was far more versed on subjects like rivers and crossing them at night and he tended to believe the man. He stood, listening to them as they bickered over going over.

"Hey!" Sam yelled, his bottled up frustrations finally taking over. The group stopped and looked at him.

"Listen you fools. We cross that river by ourselves in the dead of night and we will all die. Do you not remember what has already happened on this river? It is because this river that we did not get to the places that we wanted to see. Granted it all was one big adventure, but we can not navigate that blasted river. We are all tired, depleated of energy, and some are clearly not thinking straight. The brilliant thing to do is to camp. I know that you all want to get back home. I want to get back home too. Yet you have to think about the circumstances. It is dark. That river is winding. One misstep and we all will go down the river, possibly drown and die. Is that what you all want? To drown and die in the river right in front of our own homes? That thought is completely suicidial!" Sam yelled.

He threw a hand into his hair and turned away from them. He turned back, the fury building within him causing his body to shake with its full intensity.

"Gandalf is wise. He knows far more then any of us. And at the first sign of home you want to risk any chance of getting back alive. Do you want Gandalf to have to bring back our dead bodies to our parents? Do you? Do you want your parents to have to deal with that fact? I have known you all for quite some time. I have gone of this journey. I have had a change of heart, as all of you have noticed. I have tried to help. I have followed Sondo's lead, but if you, Sondo, are going to put all the lives of everyone here in danger then I am stepping up. What you propose is a death wish. Yes I will give it to you that there is a slight possibility that we will make it, but what about that bigger possibility that we will be wisked away and that we will have to travel any further?"

"If you all want to be fools and go ahead and kill yourselves, just go for it. I will not be the one that takes your bodies back."

Sam stood in front of them all, his fury finally dying down. He crossed his arms and gave them all a very hard stare.

"The choice is yours. Wait patiently and we cross in the daylight and get home alive or follow Sondo and get yourselves killed and come back home in a box. What is it going to be."

[Nurumaiel]

Firefoot's post:

Sondo was becoming increasingly annoyed with Sam as he went on. What did they all want of him?! They say they want to have input, so he gives it to them, and now Sam just explodes! He had asked for opinions; he hadn't said it was what they would do.

"The choice is yours. Wait patiently and we cross in the daylight and get home alive or follow Sondo and get yourselves killed and come back home in a box. What is it going to be."

"Are you done?" asked Sondo. "Because if you are, I have a few things to say to you, Sam. First of all, I never said that we were going to cross right now; I said that I thought we should try. It's not very wide, it's not quite dark yet, and we're all wet and will be chilled, so it seemed like a worthwhile suggestion. So excuse me for trying to cover all of our options! And also, if you want to argue with me, maybe you should get all of your facts straight first! This is not the Brandywine, which we were sailing down. This is the Withywindle, and it is less deep and swift than the Brandywine, even if it does come down out of the Old Forest.

"I don't mind hearing your opinion, Sam, but you know what? I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat me like an utter idiot. I've gotten us this far, and I'll admit I may have made some mistakes, but I'd say overall I've done a pretty decent job of it. If your fury is what I've earned for it all, so be it, but I don't want to hear it. Obviously you're not the only one who feels that we should camp here for another night, and that's fine! But, Sam, I have not come this far to hear you yelling at me." Never once had Sondo raised his voice, but his cold words were dripping with hot intesity and fury, and his eyes were blazing.

Sondo deliberately turned his back on Sam and, without giving the other lad a chance to respond, spoke to the others, his voice sounding strangely pleasant. "I'll be honest; I'd really like to be home tonight, with a warm meal and bed and clean clothes. The river can't be more than 25 feet across and not too deep, and Gandalf left us that rope - it's pretty long. But most of you seem to want to camp here another night, so if you're all against me then we can do so. But, unless you want wood from the Old Forest, both the night and the food will be chilly and wet. If we are going to stay here, though, I suppose we'd best get away from this river and unpack." This last was said with a mournful look at the river. There was home. He was certain that they would be able to cross the river, but he couldn't, nor would he, do it alone. He looked around expectantly, hoping for some support from at least one of the lads, since Sassy's vote didn't exactly count. If he didn't want the popular choice, though, at least he would follow the popular concensus.

*********************************

Nurumaiel's post:

Did I seem like that to the others?

Falco could not help but wonder. It was a humiliating thought. He agreed with what Sam said, but he did not agree with how Sam said it. There was no need to lose tempers. But he had done the same thing. It became even clearer to him that he was in the wrong, and that he would have to make it up with Sondo.

"Thank you, Sam," he said, patting the lad on the shoulder. Perhaps it was an odd thing to say, but he was grateful. He realised now that he had erred before, and it would not be so hard to apologise to Sondo now. He believed he should apologise... it took only humility now. "And," he added to the angry young hobbit, "calm down.

"I agree with the others, Sondo," he said, and thought rather miserably that he wouldn't look better in Sondo's eyes for teaming up against him. "I'm very anxious to get home, but I think it would be safer to wait." Sondo would be feeling overwhelmed with all this opposition, as he had been at the mutiny. He cringed at the word, and then lifted his chin a little. It was true... but he'd make up for it. He moved closer to Sondo and spoke in very friendly tones. "I can't agree with Sam that we'd be fools to try," he said. "I don't think you're a fool, you know. Maybe you're right, and we could make it all right. But we're all rather exhausted from this adventure, and perhaps it would be better to wait until morning, when both the sky and our minds are a bit lighter." He hesitated for a half a moment, and then put a hand on Sondo's shoulder and smiled the most confident and comradely smile he knew.

[Firefoot]

So be it, thought Sondo wearily. They would spend another night here, since it seemed that at least half if not all the others were against him. He wondered where he stood in their eyes. He doubted that he was the same high-ranking leader that he had been at the beginning. Maybe you're losing it, thought Sondo to himself. He was the leader, not the dictator. It was a nice niche, so long as the leader status was maintained.

He was slightly startled at Falco's hand on his shoulder. He met Falco's eyes and saw only friendship. He smiled back. "If you don't mind... I'd like to talk with you tonight," he murmured. Falco nodded, and Sondo addressed the rest of the group.

"Come on, then," he said. "Let's get camp set up before it is utterly dark." He caught the relief on several faces as he turned to lead them away from the Withywindle's bank. He stopped about half way between the marshes and the river, figuring about an eighth of a mile to be far enough distant. He was only too happy to put down his pack; after carrying it all day, it seemed much heavier than it actually was. The others set up their bedrolls as well, and then they started to unpack some dinner.

As he had expected, the bread was soggy and had to be thrown out. The meat was wet and cold since there was no fire to heat it, but otherwise edible. The fruit seemed little the worse for the wear. After the food had been doled out, Sondo waved Falco over. Falco fell into step beside him, and after a few moments of uneasy silence, Sondo said, "I guess we were both acting kind of stubborn, back when the raft crashed." Pride told him that Falco had been more wrong than he, and the mutiny still hurt. But in the end, his friendships were worth more to him than grudges, and Falco had been a good friend. And maybe he shouldn't have lost his temper like he had... He gave Falco a jaunty smile. "Friends?"

[Nurumaiel]

Falco swallowed hard. He hadn't expected it so soon. He had hoped for some time to grow used to the idea of casting away his pride, and at the moment his pride was still heavily upon him. But he would not, could not, reject Sondo's friendship. He took a deep breath.

"I'm awful sorry for the way I acted earlier," he said, very hurriedly. "I shouldn't have disagreed with you in the first place, but if I really had to disagree, I ought to have done it in a way that was more respectful to your position as leader. As it was, I not only disagreed with you myself, but did my best to make the others think the same way as I. Thank goodness they all had the good sense to either stay with you or abandon me later.

"I'd like to say, Sondo, that you've just proved what a good leader you are. If you'd been such a bad leader as I've been implying throughout this whole trip, you wouldn't have taken everything as graciously as you did. You gave in to us when you saw you were out-voted. If you were a bad leader you would have insisted on having your own way, against majorities and even against common sense. You've done a wonderful job, and I'm sorry for making things so hard on you."

He drew another deep breath, and smiled rather shakily. "There! That was rather hard to say, but I'm glad I did." He reached over and grasped Sondo's hand in his own, shaking it heartily. "Friends."

[Primrose Bolger]

Sassy could see by the expression on his face that Sondo was expecting one of the boys to support him. Never mind that she had thought it a good idea to go home. She didn’t count. She hadn’t from the first and how stupid of her not to have learned her lesson by now. But none of the boys had stood by him. They were all for waiting til morning before they dared the river.

And now Sondo had come round to their way of thinking. She looked to where Falco was standing, talking seriously to her brother. Looked like they were patching up their friendship. Sassy shook her head, thinking about how things had started out between the two of them. And now look at them . . . the adventure at least had brought those two together.

‘I wish I coulda . . .’ she thought, then took a deep breath and shrugged it off. No point in wishing for what would never be. ‘Sassy,’ she muttered to herself in her mother’s voice, ‘I hope you learned your lesson. You never shoulda tried to tag along in the first place.’

The boys had trooped back to a drier place, away from the river. Some of them were setting up a little camp while others gathered firewood. Sassy hung back, knowing no one would pay attention to what she was doing. With all of them bent to their tasks, she made her way slowly back to the edge of the river.

There were willows that grew down to water, their thick roots dipping down into the Withywindle. She climbed out onto one of the bigger tree’s roots, hanging onto a slender sucker branch for support. In the gathering darkness, she thought she could see the small glow of old Rufus Burrows' little house that stood on the small rise just beyond the Hedge. It didn’t seem so very far away and the water that flowed past her toes seemed slow and easy going.

Sassy sat down on her bottom and slid into the river. Here near the tree’s roots it was shallow and sandy, coming only to mid calf. She walked out further. It was chilly, of course, against her legs, but she’d been colder than this during the spill in the Brandywine. Her cloak was weighing her down as it wicked up the water. She shrugged it off and watched it roll slowly on the river’s current, until it became too soggy and was pulled under.

Her eyes were fixed on the other shore, though it was harder and harder to see in the gathering dark. Her little arms came up, elbows held out to the side as she stepped carefully along on the rounded rocks that led into the middle of the channel. The water grew deeper coming up now to her armpits.

She wasn’t frightened though, as she kept her goal in sight. She was halfway across, she was sure. A noise from the bank behind her made her turn. Someone had called to her, she thought, but it was only the cry of a nighthawk hunting the fat, tasty moths that rose up with the moonlight. Caught off balance as she turned back, her feet slipping on the mossy rocks, she went under for a moment. Then righting herself in the water, she tried to find some traction for her feet. But the current had pushed her a little ways downstream and into the deepest part of the channel.

Sassy bobbed up and down, pushing as hard as she could to move toward a shallower section. But the water was too deep now, and she was cold, and growing tired. An eddying current turned her about so that in the distance she could see the little campfire the boys had built. And just as quickly it turned her again. The other bank was so far away she saw in an almost dreamy manner. She thought perhaps she should call out, but her lips were too numb to obey.

So cold, and so tired. Her desperate eyes closed against her will. With an ‘O’ of surprise, or perhaps welcome, she felt the night-dark waters of the old river roll over her.

[Firefoot]

Sondo grinned, and was about to say something when he caught sight of their camp. Wait - why were there only five hobbits? Falco looked at him with evident concern. "What's wrong?"

"Hang on," muttered Sondo. He quickly counted again. Where was the sixth? His eyes scanned the surrounding area, once, then again. There! He caught sight of someone; what were they doing? Laying on the ground? No, he was in the river. And not a he, either! The bobbing curls could only belong to Sassy. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Sassy... in the river...

"No! Sassy!" he cried. Just then her head dipped out of sight. He sprinted off in her direction, hoping against all hope that he would not be too late. Fear and panic propelled him faster than he would have thought possible, but even so precious seconds were wasted in the time it took him to reach the river. He scanned the river desperately for some sign of his sister. Where was she? How long had it been? A minute? Two? Time was running out!

There! Her still form was bobbing along, maybe ten feet downstream of him. He made to dive in after her and found himself being bodily restrained by the other lads, all of whom were at least a little larger than he himself was. "Easy, Sondo," said one of them gently. Sondo did not know who; his eyes had not left his sister. "She's gone. You can't be throwing your life away, too."

A spark of madness lit his eyes. Sassy could not be dead! He would not, could not, allow it! With an impassioned burst of strength he twisted and pulled from their grasp. Before any of them realized what was happening, Sondo was in the water. Water was in his mouth, and he could see only barely between the dim light and the splashing water. He was completely consumed by a single thought: Must save Sassy... Swimming as hard as he could, he was soon within mere inches of her. Her face was in the water, and she did not move save for how the current took her. Sondo told himself that she was merely unconcious. He reached out his hand for her when suddenly she was not so close. With a swirling wave, they were pushed out into the Brandywine.

Sondo was tired to the bone, but he did not take notice of it. Madness and fear drove him. Sassy would get home, just like the rest of them. It took him a moment to spot her again, and when he did, she was further away from him than when he had started. Hang on, Sassy. I'm coming. Doggedly he struck out again. His limbs were numbing in the chill water, but it did not bother him.

Finally, finally he caught up with her. Taking his arm around her waist, he struck out towards shore. He neither knew nor cared how far downriver they had washed; Sassy was safe. He staggered up on shore, nearly collapsing from exhaustion. He refused to quit, however, and taking Sassy's still form in his arms he took off back towards the camp. He was back in the marshes, and he stumbled more than once before he was met by some of the other hobbits who had run downstream after him. One of them offered to take Sassy; Sondo refused with a few mumbled words. He had to get Sassy back to camp. He no longer cared if a fire must be made with wood from the Old Forest. Anything to keep Sassy alive.

It was perhaps an hour later and pitch dark when he stumbled into their camp. He laid Sassy out on his own bedroll. She was cold, too cold. He covered her with a blanket. He checked for her breathing; there was nothing. She had no pulse, either. She was gone. He had done everything that he could, and she was gone. Tears now formed in his eyes as he gathered Sassy up in his lap. Why, why had he not insisted that they cross the Withywindle tonight? Then Sassy would not have tried it alone. They would have come up with a safe way to do it. And why hadn't he been nicer to her these past several days? He knew that she had admired him, in her way, yet he had scorned her. Always he had told her to go run and play. Why hadn't he insisted that she go home on that very first afternoon? There were so many things that he might have done instead. Your fault, your fault, your fault, bounced the voices in his head. Alas that he had not kept a closer eye on her!

He began to shiver as a damp chill set in. He did not care. He would not leave Sassy, because she was his sister, and only too late did Sondo realize that he had loved her, in his own way. Except now she was gone.