[Child of the 7th Age]

‘I am at a loss at the moment. All the ideas I have churning in my mind don’t seem to work out well for us as I follow them to their end. We’re tired, and injured, and dispirited by the loss of another companion. Is there anything you can think of that we might do to give us a safer passage?’

Branda opened his eyes wide in disbelief as he listened to Bullroarer's somber words. He had never heard the Took so dispirited before. Bullroarer obviously did not believe that the band could withstand another warg attack. If that happened, they would never get through to Rivendell, and untold numbers of hobbits might die in the Shire.

But then, Branda reflected, neither do I think we can fight off the wargs! The Stoor fisherman searched around for something encouraging to say and suddenly found himself thinking about his Granny's words she'd given him just before he'd left the Shire:

So you're taking your bow and your dagger with you? You'll need those alright, but just don't go forgettin' and leavin' your head behind. When it comes to gettin' your way out o' a jam, the best weapon for a smart hobbit is usually craft and deception.

Branda certainly did know that. After all, he was a fisherman. The way he caught fish was not by bludgeoning them on the head. You had to think like a fish, to put yourself in the place of a fish and figure out exactly what they wanted and where they might be hiding and then outsmart them.

Indeed one of the ways Branda caught fish was to cast slimy old fish heads and entrails out from the side of the boat into the water, and pretty soon he'd have a whole school swimming around him, practically jumping into his little boat. And those darn fish were so busy eatin', they didn't even notice when he slipped nets out into the water. In fact many of them happily swam straight into them.

Branda expected that slipping nets over the heads of wargs wouldn't be terribly practical, but just keeping them busy eating seemed like a good thing, since they were likely to pay less attention to hobbits.

"Bullroarer, I do have an idea. I'm not sure how practical this is. But I think we have to start thinking of wargs as if they were fish, big and dangerous fish, but still fish. And fish are smart, but hobbits happen to be even smarter."

Bullroarer raised his eyebrows and looked a bit startled at Branda's words, wondering if the events of the day had finally gotten through to the lad.

Branda ignored the look on the Took's face and continued with his explanation, "When I catch fish, I try to give them a little of what they want, which is bait, so I can get the big thing I want, which is popping a net over their heads to catch and eat them. Now, wargs, I'm not so sure what they want. But my guess is this. You'd feed 'em a whole lot of meat, and keep them happy eatin', while you made progress down the road."

"But honestly," Branda continued. "I've no idea where to get that kind of meat in these times. It would have to be something big, really big. The biggest thing you could think of. Something so big it might give the wargs a stomach ache. So first they'd eat, and then they'd lay down on the ground to moan, and they'd just plain forget about everything, at least for a little while."

"Maybe, if we could bring down a whole string of deer, it would work. But I sure haven't seen any deer on this trip. Rabbits and fish and birds, things like that, are just too small to matter."

"I've even thought of sacrificing the ponies, but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do to old friends. Plus, how would we carry enough food back from Rivendell? We need every pony we have. And to tell the truth, I think we need something bigger than ponies, but I can't imagine what that would possibly be."

Bullroarer sat silent for a minute and then a grin played across his features, The lad wanted 'big'. Well, he could certainly give him 'big.' Nice and big and stupid, as stupid as you could get. He clapped a hand on Branda's shoulder and assured him. "Lad, your words may be wiser than you know."

Bullroarer pulled out his`map and stared down at it, carefully noting the track which led into Rivendell. He put his finger on the map and stared down at the area just east of the Last Bridge.

Bullroarer sat down and reflected a minute. He didn't know much about wargs, but he did know a bit about wolves. And he figured the two might be similar in their habits and their home territory. Those wargs weren't originally from this area where the hobbits were now travelling. They had to come from the wilderness, either east or north, where no men lived, probably in a mountainous or wooded area. Lack of food had forced them out, and that's why they were roving west towards the settlements of Men and Hobbits.

Bullroarer stared again at the map. His best guess was certainly east. Maybe it had been more than lack of food that drove the beasts out. As far as he could tell from the map, there were only two types who dwelled there. Maybe the wargs hadn't gotten along with the others so well, and they would be glad to see the others gone. That would make Branda's scheme for feeding the wargs an even better tool."

"Branda," Bullroarer barked, "This lad Tomba, is he good at things like stealing keys, or picking locks, or slipping out of ropes?"

Branda blushed deeply, "Actually, he's very good at those things, but I tell him not to do them." The Stoor looked alarmed, "Has he been doing those things again? The other day he was showing one of the other hobbits how to wiggle out of a rope, and I told him to stop."

"No," Bullroarer laughed. "Nothing like that. It's just that your words jogged an idea out of my head." He leaned over and whispered for a considerable length of time in Branda's ear.

When he finished, he called Carl over to him and pointed to the map. "We should have a few days of peace with the wargs' bellies full. I want you to ride here and see if you can find a warg lair. I suspect this is where they were originally from. And then I want you to look for something else." He leaned over and whispered something in Carl's ear.

"But is that safe?" Carl protested.

Bullroarer mused, "Well, they are a bit thick headed, so it must be safer than a head-long attack by Wargs. Anyways, we've got a secret weapon up our sleeve."

Then Bullroarer ducked out and began searching for Tomba.

[ January 26, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]