An Acceptance

As Raina made her way to the long table where Merry and Pippin were, the room started tilting, ever so slightly. She shook her head and pushed onward, ignoring the drunken sensation.

She squeezed in between Merry and some Man on his other side. The Man gave a grunt of indignation, but looking over to see who exactly had pushed him out of the way, he said no more.

“Hey, boys,” she said with a little giggle. “Having a nice night?”

They both turned to see her, and smiles spread on both of their faces. Merry wrapped his arm around her in a friendly way, speaking to her as if they were still in the Shire, without a care in the world.

“Ah, it is fine,” he started. “But it would be better if only we had-”

“The Green Dragon!” Pippin finished with a hiccup. Raina laughed in agreement as the cousins started to sing.

“OH, you can search far and wide; You can drink the whole town dry!”

The Hobbits were so loud that everyone at the table had turned to look at them. They cheered in amusement, and called for them to get up on the table. The Hobbits happily obliged and started again, twice as loud now.

“OOOOH, you can search far and wide; You can drink the whole town dry!” They sang as Raina leaned back, trying not to laugh so hard.

“But you’ll never find a beer so brown, as the one we have in our hometown!”

With this they started stomping their feet and dancing over the table, knocking mugs over left and right. Not that they noticed. Raina scooped hers up before they made it over to her.

“You can keep your fancy ales! You can drink them by the flagon! But the only brew for the brave and truuuuue!”

Both Merry and Pippin motioned to Raina, who set her mug down with a thump before calling out, “Comes from the Green Dragon!”

With this, everyone at the tables laughed and clapped drunkenly, and Merry and Pippin hi-fived her once they had stepped down from the table.

But when Raina looked up, her smiled faded a little. Gandalf was gazing at the three Shire-folk intently, as if he were the only one who had not forgotten the seriousness of the time. She said her byes and see-you-laters to Merry and Pippin before standing and moving over to where Gandalf stood, her arms hanging by her sides.

By the time she got over there, the old wizard was speaking to Aragorn about Frodo.

“We have time,” Aragorn was saying. “Every day Frodo moves closer to Mordor.”

Gandalf turned to look at the Ranger. “Do we know that?”

Raina got over there then, and joined their small group without a word, looking up at Gandalf with a small frown.

“What does your heart tell you?” Aragorn asked lightly, but the piercing stare in his eyes told a different story.

“That Frodo is alive,” Gandalf said after a long moment.

Raina looked at both of them for half a moment. “Well, of course he’s alive,” she said defiantly. “There’s no way he couldn’t be.”

Just then, Legolas joined their group, a smug grin on his face and the smell of liquor on his breath.

“Yes,” Gandalf agreed. “Yes. He is alive.”

Raina noticed that he could not agree with her on the fact that he would definitely be okay, and it scared her. There was too much to be worried about. Way too much.

Legolas noticed her worry as soon as the other two had gone their separate ways, and put his arm out to her as invitation to take a walk. Raina looked at it sadly, before wrapping her hand around his forearm, and he led her through the crowd and outside.