bloom

[bronwe]

Who: Frodo and YOU!
What: fail gardening
When: morning of April 4
Where: by the orchard
Rating: PG

It is warm enough now that Frodo can walk about barefooted without worrying that he might lose both legs to the frost. He remembers how Sam would start his planting at around this time of the year, just when the seasons turn and the sweet smell of spring is almost here. But not quite.

There is a tin bucket of flower bulbs some ways from the apple tree, set beside the small crouched figure digging little holes into the ground with his hands. He has a pile of pulled weeds and rocks on his other side, having cleared a small patch there for his makeshift garden. Planting the bulbs confuses him though. Which way is up and how deep should it go?

Times like these, more than ever, makes him wish Sam were here to give him all sorts of wise advice, and not only for gardening. He can already imagine one hundred and one quips from the hobbit. But his friend isn't here, yet, so Frodo just keeps squinting at the bulb, hoping some revelation will miraculously come to him eventually.

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[lightbranded]

"It sounds like a nice garden. And friend."

Will had always liked plants. Although he liked knowing about them even more.

[bronwe]

There, that should be about three times as deep as the bulb is tall. Frodo stands up and wipes his hands on his pants, never mind the dirt, before reaching to take one bulb. He holds it up to Will with a smile, the sort that says here goes nothing!

"The best, I assure you. I can't imagine where I would be without him."

[lightbranded]

"The best kind of friend, really." Will keeps the smile on his face as he watches Frodo pick up the bulb. And the starts digging his hands into the dirt himself, This would go faster if there were two people digging.

But even as he does so, he can't help but remember his own closest friend. Bran. Oh, Bran. For a long time Will hadn't been able to imagine his life without having the the boy as his friend. As the Arthur to his Merlin.

But Bran had given up his heritage and his memories. He would never remember their adventures again. And even if they met again, Bran would never know Will as anything more than the English boy he had once met on vacation. That greater depth to their friendship was gone forever.

[bronwe]

Ties and emotions are built on memories, and sometimes he is afraid that maybe he would forget, the way Smeagol forgot his family and friends. All the one who loved him. More than pain or death, he thinks, that is worse.

Frodo places the bulb in the hole he dug before gently sweeping some loose soil over it. He rests his arms on his knees and watches Will help him dig for a moment, hoping maybe to learn the better technique. "Isn't it a good feeling to be so close to the earth?"

[lightbranded]

"I think so." Will's lips quirk up in a small pleased smile as he feels the cool dirt on his hands. "I really have been missing this sort of thing. At home I always went out to watch the snowdrops and the daffodils as the grew. There was this one place in the manor grounds, where ages and ages ago someone had planted a few. And as bulbs do, they had spread and multiplied until they were everywhere."

[bronwe]

He grins his way, finding the digging easier the second time. Maybe he is soon becoming a true gardener!

"That sounds like a wonderful life, not too different from mine too," he goes to fetch another bulb to put in the ground. "I liked going on long walks through the forest, just me and the sound of my footsteps, the rustling branches above me. Sometimes, on good days when the stars shine so bright they seem almost like little lights just above one's head, I would hear the elves singing, in tune with the trees, the wind, the very earth..."

[lightbranded]

"That does sound nice. Though I've never spent much time outside at night. Nor ever heard any elves singing at home."

Old One or now, Will was still only thirteen and the baby of the family. Everyone had always worried if he stayed out too late.

[bronwe]

"There are two elves here, as far as I know. The Lady Galadriel would have the loveliest songs to sing for you but the tunes Legolas have are happier," he turns to him with a smile. "They love singing, I don't think they would mine so long as you do not ask which one is the better song."

[lightbranded]

"I have met both of them, many times. Although I have spoken more to the Lady than to Legolas." Will smiles in fond memory. "She has been very kind. And kind enough to share some of the music of her world before."

[bronwe]

"Oh!" Silly old Frodo, prattling on about the elves when the boy might know them better. He has spent so little time with either of them, at least time spent learning more about them.

"Did you like them?"

[lightbranded]

"Very much so." Will had spent a great deal of time speaking with Galadriel over the months he had been here. She understood much of what he was. Sometimes he thought that she understood what he was better than anyone else in the castle. Or anyone in his world, for that matter. Now that he was the only Old One left to walk the world.

[bronwe]

"Galadriel still frightens me sometimes, because she knows much and oftentimes--" he bites his lips and buys his time by reaching for another bulb to plant. "Sometimes there are certain parts one prefers to keep secret but such things do not exist in her presence."

[lightbranded]

"My master was the same way, sometimes." Will grins at the memory. "But I never minded that. It was just the way he was." Of course the real reason Will never minded that sort of thing was that he would one day be that kind of person, himself.

But in Will, such moments of disquieting knowledge still happened only rarely. Most of the time, he just came across as someone utterly ordinary and unremarkable.

[bronwe]

Maybe there is virtue in being stern, but Frodo has never learned it or seen the need to be. He would rather be a quiet companion, to have his peace.

"What did you do for your master?"

[lightbranded]

"Learned, I suppose. He was the oldest as I was the youngest, and he had many things to teach me." In magic, and in coming to an understanding of what he was in those first days.

Of course, their relationship had long since changed from that of an apprentice and master to that of colleagues and close friends. But for respect and love for his friend, Will still named him with the title of master.

[bronwe]

Frodo stops his digging to look at Will, not quite understanding what he means. "The youngest and the oldest of what?"

It seems strange that there would be no one younger than the boy beside him, no babies?

[lightbranded]

"Of the Old Ones." Will's gaze turns distant as he speaks, as if his mind was a very long way away indeed.

"We were a great circle, born into every time and place. I was the first to be born in 500 years, and the last. After me there will never be another. The Youngest of the Old, they called me."

[bronwe]

An irony, he thinks.

"But why has your line stopped?"

[lightbranded]

Will thoughtfully traces a pattern on his arm as he answers.

"There was no need for any more, I suppose. The Old Ones always knew that one day the need for us for come to an end. The world belongs to humans, now. As it should."

His gaze turns distant again.

"And all the Old Ones have sailed away. To rest in the land behind the North Wind. Only I remain. And that, too, is as it should be."

[bronwe]

Frodo falls quiet at that. He knows what that reminds him of though the boy seems nothing like an elf. He should know better than to judge anyone by appearances now, though.

"The Lady Galadriel's people are also sailing away. They walk past our forests sometimes, that is when I would hear them sing as they go to the harbors."

[lightbranded]

"She told me so, once. I suppose it is similar, in a way." They had spoken much on that topic.

[bronwe]

"She said it is because their time has passed and men should now take the reins, so to speak." That still feels bittersweet though, and Frodo tries to smile to himself to drive away the sadness.

"Is that also true of your people?"

[lightbranded]

"It is very similar, yes. The time of the Light and of the Dark and of the High Magic has passed. The world belongs to men now, and it is up to them to decide what the future of it may be. Whether that may be for good or ill."

[bronwe]

"But I never understood why they have to leave," even if that may just be him and his love for the elves. "They could stay and advise us. We don't yet know what to do, which is good or evil."

[lightbranded]

I can't speak for the elves, of course. But the reason my kind left is exactly that. We existed simply to save the world from the Dark. To protect humans from them and to ensure that they could choose their own futures free of any influence from the Dark. But once the Dark was gone we no longer had a purpose.

Oh, we could have stayed, like you said. We could have reveled ourselves to the world, and offered our advice and guidance.

But that is not our nature. The world belongs to humans, and it is their choice what its future must be. And whether it is for good or for ill, it must be their own choice, and they must take the consequences that come with it. It would be wrong for my kind to interfere with this.