On a Fence by the Pond by Pearl Took
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lotrchallengesAuthor: Pearl Took
Title: On a Fence by the Pond
Theme: Mad as a March Hare
Elements: drizzle
Rating: G
Author's Notes:
Word Count: 1,648
This story is fulfilling three challenges:
B2MEM: A character is supposed to meet a friend at an appointed time and place. Upon arriving, his or her friend is nowhere in sight, and instead the character meets someone entirely unexpected.
March LOTR Community Challenges: You are to write a story in which a character is acting "mad" or out of character--for a reason! The element will be a type of weather which you should incorporate into the story. Your element for the story is: drizzle.
Plot bunny from Dreamflower: Pearl and Pippin – Pearl as main character along with Pippin, have their own adventure.
* * * * *
On a Fence Near the Pond
“Why is this happening to me? Why! Why today of all days!” Pearl Took fidgeted on the top rail of the fence. Her hair was frizzy from the drizzle that was part of her frustration. The weather would turn bad. “He actually asks me to meet him at the pond behind The Hill first day of the Lithe Day Fair and here I am, at the pond, stuck on a fence.” She stamped her foot against the rail it rested on. “What a horrible day this has turned out to be!”
“What’s wrong, Pearl?”
She startled, nearly losing her balance. “Pippin! Don’t sneak up on me like that.” She closed her eyes, let her breath out and placed a hand over her pounding heart. “You could have made me fall.”
“Sorry. But what’s wrong? You were muttering and stamping your foot.”
“Everything is wrong, Pippin. Just go away and leave me alone.”
Pippin sulked a few moments before trying a different approach. “Why don’t we go have some tarts? Or biscuits? Or cake. You like cake a lot. They are serving the goodies from the baking competition.”
“I don’t want anything, thank you Pippin. Why don’t you go and get yourself something?”
“You should come wi . . .”
“No. I’m meeting someone and you’re not h . . . that person, and you aren’t supposed to be here, so please go away.”
Her bother shrugged, turned and started to walk back to the party field when a growling noise stopped him. He turned around to see Pearl pound the fence post with her fist.
“That was a lovely noise, coming from a lass.” He walked back. “What is wrong, Pearl?”
Tears joined with condensed drizzle to run down her cheeks.
“I’m stuck on the bloody fence!”
Pippin’s eyes widened. Pearl usually didn’t use words like ‘bloody’.
“How can you be stuck on a fence?”
“I didn’t realize I was standing on my skirt when I swung my leg over the top rail. My skirt ripped half-way down the back seam. I . . . I hurried to get over and I felt a splinter cut my leg, and it’s bleeding and it’s on my . . . my knickers and I’m stuck on the stupid fence because if I get down . . .” Her crying overtook the rest.
“You’ll be showing your bloody knickers to the whole of Hobbiton.”
She nodded from behind her hands.
“Why don’t I see if I can find a cloak or something and bring it to you? That should cover you up.”
“Won’t keep my skirt from hanging oddly and dragging in the mud,” she muttered.
“Umm. Some pins as well then? Needle and thread? I can sew you know. Well, at least well enough to hold things in place for a little bit. If I just get pins, you won’t be able to sit down anywhere.”
She looked over at her little brother. “No, I couldn’t sit down on pins.” She grinned a little. “Needle and thread sound fine, Pip, and a cloak. I brought mine because it looked as thought it might rain when we left this morning. It is up where the family set all our picnic things.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, Pearl!” Pippin called over his shoulder as he ran off.
Soon, Pearl heard someone whistling. Her heart leapt. Maybe it was Odegar. She tried to sit as prettily as she could on her perch. Everything might be all right if he didn’t ask her to take a stroll around the pond. But it was her cousin Reginard. She didn’t want him there. What if Ordegar came around The Hill and saw her talking to Regi? He'd leave. He’d be hurt and upset because she was supposed to be meeting him.
“Hello, Pearl. How are you doing? Why, you don’t even have a cloak on in this nasty drizzle.”
“Nasty drizzle? Why is it nasty, Regi? Why I quite love the drizzle and the frizzle it puts in my hair. Do you know that drizzle is really very good for things? It doesn’t beat down fragile plants. Mushrooms really like the drizzle. And insects! Insects can still fly about in drizzle but they can’t really fly about in the rain. You know, when it is raining full sized big drops and coming down fairly hard and such; they can’t fly in that.”
“Eh. Of course. Whatever you say, Pearl.”
“You really should take your cloak off, Regi. Let the drizzle water your head; much better for it than washing your hair in the bath. I . . . ah, I never wash my hair anymore. No. Not ever. I just go outside and stand in the rain. Or the drizzle, of course. Why, I even stand out in the sleet and snow in the winter!”
Reginard started backing away. His cousin usually was so even tempered and calm but now she was sounding like her crazy little brother!
“Snow is excellent for hair. Even better for your skin!” Pearl enthused, her voice getting higher and higher in pitch. “Why, I even bathe out in the snow. I go deep in the grove near our house and just strip right off and let the sleet or snow cover me and then I start scrubbing at my arms and legs and . . .”
“That’s all very interesting Pearl, but I have to go see if the wood carvings I entered have won. Good day to you!”
Regi ran over The Hill faster than Pearl had seen him run in years. She sighed.
“Well there goes my reputation if he chooses to blab that lot of rubbish about. I do hope Pippin hurries up.”
A rustling in the bushes off to her right caught her attention. A white duck waddled out into the open and Pearl relaxed, until the duck was followed by Ted Sandyman, son of the Hobbiton miller.
“Well hello!” He stared at her chest. “One of them good healthy Took lasses, ain’t ya? Pearl, I’m thinking yer name is.”
“Yes. Eh no! I’m waiting for someone so you’d best be off.”
“I’m someone,” he leered.
Think fast. Think fast! Pearl’s thoughts raced. Ted started to reach for her.
“Widdle, widdle waddle duck,
Widdle white coat on.”
Pearl sang the children’s ditty as loud as she could. Ted’s hand stopped short of her thigh.
“Widdle, widdle waddle duck,
Waddling to the pond!
Sing with me, Ted!”
He stood there with his mouth hanging open.
“Maybe this one:
Hortensia, my darling
Tell me please do,
Hortensia, my sweetie
Why I should love you?”
Pearl sang with off-key gusto. Ted started backing away, fearing the racket might bring someone running.
“Your lips are the thinnest
I’ve ever seen.
And Hortensia, my dearest
I think they’ve turned green!”
“I’m a little teapot
Short and stout . . .”
“Yes, well. You just have yourself a nice sing-song, ya daft lass.” Ted kept backing away.
Pearl put her fist on her hip and stuck out her elbow as she reached her other hand up and out.
“Here is my handle,
Here is my spout.”
Ted bolted: Pearl sighed, but the song continued.
“When I get all steamed up
Then I shout . . .”
Someone climbed up beside her. She turned. It was Odegar Bolger.
“Ted best not touch you
Or I’ll give him a clout!”
He laughed then grew serious. “That lout didn’t bother you, did he? If he did I will chase him down and give him a clout.” Odegar grinned. “Heh! Lout and clout, I was still rhyming!”
“Would you have hit him, Odegar?”
“No hobbit should go forcing his attentions on a lass,” he said, but his blush let her know he meant no lad should be ogling her. “I did think you weren’t quite as odd as most other Tooks, but now I’m not so sure, Miss. Pearl. ‘Widdle, widdle waddle duck?’”
“No! I’m not as odd . . .” Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, Tooks are odd?”
He blushed, lowering his eyes. “They are oddly appealing.” He looked up and into her eyes. “You are oddly appealing, Pearl, sitting here on a fence singing ditties to chase away that nasty bit of goods. Would you like to take a walk around the pond?”
Pearl’s eyes went wide for a moment then changed to a soft, inviting expression. “I walked around the fair a lot today and I’m rather enjoying sitting here.”
“Then we’ll sit here,” he said. He slid his hand over hers. “Sitting here is just fine.”
“P . . .” Pippin started to shout as he came around The Hill, but he swallowed it back. His sister and Odegar were obviously doing just fine, the lad was even taking off his cloak and draping it around Pearl’s shoulders. It was a sure bet, Pippin reckoned, that Pearl would figure out a way off that fence on her own. With a chuckle, Pip looked down at Pearl’s cloak with a needle and thread stuck into it lying across his arm, turned around and headed back to all the food and fun at the fair.
Title: On a Fence by the Pond
Theme: Mad as a March Hare
Elements: drizzle
Rating: G
Author's Notes:
Word Count: 1,648
This story is fulfilling three challenges:
B2MEM: A character is supposed to meet a friend at an appointed time and place. Upon arriving, his or her friend is nowhere in sight, and instead the character meets someone entirely unexpected.
March LOTR Community Challenges: You are to write a story in which a character is acting "mad" or out of character--for a reason! The element will be a type of weather which you should incorporate into the story. Your element for the story is: drizzle.
Plot bunny from Dreamflower: Pearl and Pippin – Pearl as main character along with Pippin, have their own adventure.
* * * * *
On a Fence Near the Pond
“Why is this happening to me? Why! Why today of all days!” Pearl Took fidgeted on the top rail of the fence. Her hair was frizzy from the drizzle that was part of her frustration. The weather would turn bad. “He actually asks me to meet him at the pond behind The Hill first day of the Lithe Day Fair and here I am, at the pond, stuck on a fence.” She stamped her foot against the rail it rested on. “What a horrible day this has turned out to be!”
“What’s wrong, Pearl?”
She startled, nearly losing her balance. “Pippin! Don’t sneak up on me like that.” She closed her eyes, let her breath out and placed a hand over her pounding heart. “You could have made me fall.”
“Sorry. But what’s wrong? You were muttering and stamping your foot.”
“Everything is wrong, Pippin. Just go away and leave me alone.”
Pippin sulked a few moments before trying a different approach. “Why don’t we go have some tarts? Or biscuits? Or cake. You like cake a lot. They are serving the goodies from the baking competition.”
“I don’t want anything, thank you Pippin. Why don’t you go and get yourself something?”
“You should come wi . . .”
“No. I’m meeting someone and you’re not h . . . that person, and you aren’t supposed to be here, so please go away.”
Her bother shrugged, turned and started to walk back to the party field when a growling noise stopped him. He turned around to see Pearl pound the fence post with her fist.
“That was a lovely noise, coming from a lass.” He walked back. “What is wrong, Pearl?”
Tears joined with condensed drizzle to run down her cheeks.
“I’m stuck on the bloody fence!”
Pippin’s eyes widened. Pearl usually didn’t use words like ‘bloody’.
“How can you be stuck on a fence?”
“I didn’t realize I was standing on my skirt when I swung my leg over the top rail. My skirt ripped half-way down the back seam. I . . . I hurried to get over and I felt a splinter cut my leg, and it’s bleeding and it’s on my . . . my knickers and I’m stuck on the stupid fence because if I get down . . .” Her crying overtook the rest.
“You’ll be showing your bloody knickers to the whole of Hobbiton.”
She nodded from behind her hands.
“Why don’t I see if I can find a cloak or something and bring it to you? That should cover you up.”
“Won’t keep my skirt from hanging oddly and dragging in the mud,” she muttered.
“Umm. Some pins as well then? Needle and thread? I can sew you know. Well, at least well enough to hold things in place for a little bit. If I just get pins, you won’t be able to sit down anywhere.”
She looked over at her little brother. “No, I couldn’t sit down on pins.” She grinned a little. “Needle and thread sound fine, Pip, and a cloak. I brought mine because it looked as thought it might rain when we left this morning. It is up where the family set all our picnic things.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, Pearl!” Pippin called over his shoulder as he ran off.
Soon, Pearl heard someone whistling. Her heart leapt. Maybe it was Odegar. She tried to sit as prettily as she could on her perch. Everything might be all right if he didn’t ask her to take a stroll around the pond. But it was her cousin Reginard. She didn’t want him there. What if Ordegar came around The Hill and saw her talking to Regi? He'd leave. He’d be hurt and upset because she was supposed to be meeting him.
“Hello, Pearl. How are you doing? Why, you don’t even have a cloak on in this nasty drizzle.”
“Nasty drizzle? Why is it nasty, Regi? Why I quite love the drizzle and the frizzle it puts in my hair. Do you know that drizzle is really very good for things? It doesn’t beat down fragile plants. Mushrooms really like the drizzle. And insects! Insects can still fly about in drizzle but they can’t really fly about in the rain. You know, when it is raining full sized big drops and coming down fairly hard and such; they can’t fly in that.”
“Eh. Of course. Whatever you say, Pearl.”
“You really should take your cloak off, Regi. Let the drizzle water your head; much better for it than washing your hair in the bath. I . . . ah, I never wash my hair anymore. No. Not ever. I just go outside and stand in the rain. Or the drizzle, of course. Why, I even stand out in the sleet and snow in the winter!”
Reginard started backing away. His cousin usually was so even tempered and calm but now she was sounding like her crazy little brother!
“Snow is excellent for hair. Even better for your skin!” Pearl enthused, her voice getting higher and higher in pitch. “Why, I even bathe out in the snow. I go deep in the grove near our house and just strip right off and let the sleet or snow cover me and then I start scrubbing at my arms and legs and . . .”
“That’s all very interesting Pearl, but I have to go see if the wood carvings I entered have won. Good day to you!”
Regi ran over The Hill faster than Pearl had seen him run in years. She sighed.
“Well there goes my reputation if he chooses to blab that lot of rubbish about. I do hope Pippin hurries up.”
A rustling in the bushes off to her right caught her attention. A white duck waddled out into the open and Pearl relaxed, until the duck was followed by Ted Sandyman, son of the Hobbiton miller.
“Well hello!” He stared at her chest. “One of them good healthy Took lasses, ain’t ya? Pearl, I’m thinking yer name is.”
“Yes. Eh no! I’m waiting for someone so you’d best be off.”
“I’m someone,” he leered.
Think fast. Think fast! Pearl’s thoughts raced. Ted started to reach for her.
“Widdle, widdle waddle duck,
Widdle white coat on.”
Pearl sang the children’s ditty as loud as she could. Ted’s hand stopped short of her thigh.
“Widdle, widdle waddle duck,
Waddling to the pond!
Sing with me, Ted!”
He stood there with his mouth hanging open.
“Maybe this one:
Hortensia, my darling
Tell me please do,
Hortensia, my sweetie
Why I should love you?”
Pearl sang with off-key gusto. Ted started backing away, fearing the racket might bring someone running.
“Your lips are the thinnest
I’ve ever seen.
And Hortensia, my dearest
I think they’ve turned green!”
“I’m a little teapot
Short and stout . . .”
“Yes, well. You just have yourself a nice sing-song, ya daft lass.” Ted kept backing away.
Pearl put her fist on her hip and stuck out her elbow as she reached her other hand up and out.
“Here is my handle,
Here is my spout.”
Ted bolted: Pearl sighed, but the song continued.
“When I get all steamed up
Then I shout . . .”
Someone climbed up beside her. She turned. It was Odegar Bolger.
“Ted best not touch you
Or I’ll give him a clout!”
He laughed then grew serious. “That lout didn’t bother you, did he? If he did I will chase him down and give him a clout.” Odegar grinned. “Heh! Lout and clout, I was still rhyming!”
“Would you have hit him, Odegar?”
“No hobbit should go forcing his attentions on a lass,” he said, but his blush let her know he meant no lad should be ogling her. “I did think you weren’t quite as odd as most other Tooks, but now I’m not so sure, Miss. Pearl. ‘Widdle, widdle waddle duck?’”
“No! I’m not as odd . . .” Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, Tooks are odd?”
He blushed, lowering his eyes. “They are oddly appealing.” He looked up and into her eyes. “You are oddly appealing, Pearl, sitting here on a fence singing ditties to chase away that nasty bit of goods. Would you like to take a walk around the pond?”
Pearl’s eyes went wide for a moment then changed to a soft, inviting expression. “I walked around the fair a lot today and I’m rather enjoying sitting here.”
“Then we’ll sit here,” he said. He slid his hand over hers. “Sitting here is just fine.”
“P . . .” Pippin started to shout as he came around The Hill, but he swallowed it back. His sister and Odegar were obviously doing just fine, the lad was even taking off his cloak and draping it around Pearl’s shoulders. It was a sure bet, Pippin reckoned, that Pearl would figure out a way off that fence on her own. With a chuckle, Pip looked down at Pearl’s cloak with a needle and thread stuck into it lying across his arm, turned around and headed back to all the food and fun at the fair.