LOTR: The problems with Thursday - Merry Brandybuck FF

A Thursday in September Pt 2 - Chapter 19

Merry began to cough, as he swallowed a mouthful of food too quickly. He quickly glanced across at Alora, blushing, before looking back at his mother disapprovingly. 

"MUM!" he exclaimed, hiding his blushing cheeks from her. His mother shrugged back at him, before winking at Alora. Alora smiled a little behind her hand, and left the conversation to turn a little awkward.

Around half past seven that night, Alora and Merry headed into Hobbiton for the celebrations. The two massive party tents were set up next to th party tree, which had small light hanging from its branches. There was all kinds of food, drink and different smells all over the place. People were already heavily drunk, some even dancing on the tables. Almost all the shire must have been there that night, only half of those being actually invited. 

Alora, Merry, Pippin and Ra sat at a table drinking for a while, simply watching Gandalf's fireworks. That was until Merry had an Idea. He whispered something in Pippin's ear and then turned to Alora.

"Watch this!" he exclaimed happily, before running off into a tent with Pippin. Alora looked across at Ra, who was just as confused as she was. They peered curiously at the tent, hearing the odd whisper.

After a few more moments, there was a whoosh of light, and two small squeals from inside what was left of the tent. Alora watched as the firework shot into the sky, and burst into orange flames. The flames then formed into something, a dragon! It climbed higher into the sky, and then swooped just above the party, causing people to panic and scream. As it passed over, it began to shrink again, before finally it bust into more bright orange, yellow and red flames.

Alora and Ra both looked anxiously across at the tent, hoping somebody would stir. To their relief, two, very burnt faced hobbits. emerged from the shreds of the tent that remained. Before they could react, Gandalf had them both by the ear, and was having a good go at them. Alora looked from Merry, to Ra, and then they both began to fall about in fits of laughter.

Merry and Pippin were stuck washing dishes for a while, looking rather miserable. They continued to do so until after Bilbo's blinder of a speech, and had disappeared into thin air. Frodo himself seemed to vanish a few moments after that. Alora, along with most other hobbits at the party, were extremely shocked, and worried about what had happened. However, what happened was soon to be forgotten, and was washed away with continued partying.

 They all headed back into Bywater, to the Green Dragon in particular. There, the celebrations were set to last until the early hours of the day, and everybody seemed glad of it.  There were more people in there than usual, which made it seem a lot less comfortable. Alora was especially afraid of small spaces, and hated it. However, they did manage to get a table in the corner, where it was much quieter.

"So, Bilbo's disappeared?" is what Ra said as she sat down at the table, clutching the mug of ale in her hands. The conversations went from there, and ended up drifting into the most random of subject. They even ended up talking about how Ra and Pippin ended up together. Alora loved listening to the story of the 'Shire dragons', which Ra called it. It was after dark when Alora went out of the Inn for a breath of fresh air. The smell pipe weed was beginning to make her feel a little ill. 

She wandered out into the dark, and sat down on the bench in front of the water, which stood behind the Green Dragon. The air was a little cooler than it was before, and a slight wind rolled through her curled hair. The bench was a little old, but the broken reflections of the light on the pond made it seem more beautiful. 

Alora breathed in the air, and rested her head back, looking up into the sky. She began to day dream of what was up in the sky, as well as the stars, and of far away places. She moved her hand a little further along the bench, and stopped when she felt something which wasn't wood. She ran her fingers along it, it was warm, and quite soft. Suddenly, she realised it was a hand. Alora looked up sharply to her side, and was met by a wide smile from Merry. She jumped sideways a little, forgetting about her hand on his.