Written for the LOTR Community "Gratitude" challenge. For ThunderaTiger for her birthday. A triple drabble.
“Did you miss us, Frodo?” Sam asked one bright morning as he and his friend walked through a glade of impossibly green grass and colorful flowers, hearing from afar the songs of the Elves as they went about their own business inside the eaves of the distant woods.
Miss you? Oh, yes, Sam, I did—intensely! But I was here now, and there was so much beauty to see and experience, so many from whom to learn! And I had time to do it all. You know as well as I that I no longer belonged there in the mortal lands, that I was too changed to remain there, had seen and done far too much to fit in. Not that I was liable to live that much longer. Even here the ties between fëa and hröa are far too fragile.
“Yes, too stubborn a Baggins even here to let go afore I could come to be with you.”
Sam was delighted to hear Frodo’s beautiful laugh. You have it in a nutshell, my beloved brother! So Lord Námo tells me as well! Not that he appears to begrudge me the chance to share what you wish to experience with me before we go on.
Sam beamed at his friend. “And that had best not be all that long now, my blessed Lord Iorhael. Oh, it’s not that I’m unhappy here, you know. It’s only, well, I’m findin’ myself awful restless. It’s about time as we was thinkin’ of joinin’ the others—our mums and dads, old Mister Bilbo, and the like. Mayhaps we’ll even see Boromir, too, and let him know as all ended up proper in the end. What do you think of that?”
Frodo’s smile added a Sun’s worth of additional brilliance to the day.