[Child of the 7th Age]

Child sat in the stern, watching the waves slide behind the ship, one-by-one. She talked to no one. Her eyes were wet with tears. Now, she understood why Piosenniel the Elf sometimes withdrew by herself to remember days long ago.

For some strange reason she did not understand, a memory came and tugged on her heart. It was something she had once seen as a child but had forgotten for many years. She recalled going with Bilbo to a great meeting in the town hall of Bree. It was the first and only time she had seen that city as a young maid. She had been so excited to go and carry her Uncle's scrolls and books.

When they had reached the hall, a group of men were engaged in a lengthy debate. Child had shrunk into the corner of the room and listened with every bone in her body, remaining absolutely silent. Bilbo had sat in a chair at the table listening to the words of the men.

At the end of the discussion, the men had turned with great solemness to Bilbo, and declared that they indeed had figured out the origins of the hobbit folk. The leader among them, the one whom the others deemed most wise, got up before the group and declared that the hobbit people were half-way between the non-sentient animals of the world and humankind. Since hobbits had no inscriptions or great works of art or large buildings, and waged war very infrequently, they could not possible be men themselves, or even a race equal to that of men. They lived in holes in the ground and, therefore, they must be animals.

She remembered that the men had assured Bilbo that he himself was, of course, an exception to this general rule. Bilbo had sat, smoked his pipe, and said nothing. Child had shrunk into the corner feeling more and more like a rabbit who had been cornered after the hunt and was awaiting the kill.

Then they had left and gone home to the Shire, and Bilbo swore never to return to Bree again.

On their way home, Bilbo had looked at Child and asked her what she thought of the men's speech. Child had shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I wanted to ask that tall man how many of his ancestors had listened to the call of the Dark One to become Uruk-hai or to go out and murder his own kin or perhaps to pound down all his neighbors beneath him so he could rise up over them as lord. I don't think that there were too many of us who did such things. Perhaps, if being a man means such things, it actually might be better to be called an animal."

Bilbo had looked at her, reached out his hand to tousle her hair, and laughed quite heartily. He then said, "You have a head on your shoulders, Child. Don't ever lose it, but also hold onto your love of mathoms and parties and running through the fields and silliness. You are wiser than the big ones know. And remember too that not all men believe such nonsense. Seek out the ones whose hearts are true. "

Perhaps, Child thought, if the big ones had heard Piosennil's story, they would not have been so ready to call her own people insulting names. But maybe they would not have stopped to listen to the story, since they were very busy with their own affairs in the Fourth Age, and sometimes seemed to forget even the wisdom of the Elves.

Child shook her head and, once again, tried to decipher the meaning of Piosenniel's words. Then she got up from the deck and decided to go search out Rose and Daisy, and tell them that she thought their journey in the small boat was not such a heinous act as Bird had said. For, if one could not do some silliness with friends now and again, what would life ever come to? And she added to her list to try and speak with Birdland sometime soon, for the shapechanger had seemed a bit sad and testy in recent days even for one of her own kind.

[ July 29, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]