Chance Meeting by StarSpray

Chance Meeting

Sam came around the bole of a great ancient tree and stopped, before quickly backing away round it again, out of sight. Carefully, he peered around it at the Man—one of the Big People!—crouched in the small clearing on the other side. He looked to be finishing the last stages of breaking a campsite. But what a Big Person would be doing camping not twenty miles from Hobbiton, Sam could not fathom.

The smart thing would have been to slip quietly away and take his mushroom hunting elsewhere—all the way back to Hobbiton, to be especially safe—but Sam did not do that, too curious for proper caution. He had never seen a Big Person before, except for Gandalf, and he wasn't quite sure that Gandalf really counted.

It was difficult to tell how old the Man was. He had no grey in his hair, but his face was hard and stern. His clothes were all well made but worn, in browns and greens, and stained with travel and rough sleeping. He would, Sam thought, be very hard to see if he was trying to hide. His hands were long-fingered and quick as he gathered up the last of his things into a pack with many pockets of various sizes secured with ties and buckles. On the ground beside him lay a sword longer than Sam was tall.

Without looking up, the Man said, "You can come out. I don't bite." Sam shrank back, startled, and then straightened his spine and stepped out from behind the tree. The Man looked over at him and smiled. When he smiled he looked much younger, and Sam felt a little better about speaking to him. "Are you looking for mushrooms?" the Man asked him. "There's a good patch just over there." He nodded across the little clearing, where a large cluster of white mushroom caps were visible among the fallen leaves.

"Oh," said Sam. "Thank you." Then he bowed, remembering his manners. "Sam Gamgee, at your service!"

The Man rose, towering over Sam, and bowed in return. "Halbarad of the North, at yours and your family's," he replied.

"Begging your pardon, Master Halbarad—what are you doing out here?" The question came out before Sam could stop it, and he could feel himself turning red. "I mean, we don't see many Big People in the Shire, you know."

"Yes, I know. I have business in the south, and the quickest way was through the Shire. Fear not, I shall not trouble you or your folk." Halbarad shouldered his pack and picked up his sword. "Happy mushroom hunting, young Master Gamgee." And he strode off, his long legs taking him out of sight in moments, and he moved nearly as quietly as a hobbit. Sam watched him go thoughtfully, for some reason thinking of Master Bilbo's tales of the Kings from Over The Sea. Then he shook his head and pulled out his sack to get to work on the mushrooms, before someone like Ted Sandyman stumbled on it.