The Two Worlds

††Chapter Thirteen††

Chapter Thirteen

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The rest of the day they traveled on in silence; no one talked, no one sung and one of them did not hear. Cody clung onto Frodo and buried her face into his, once, white shirt. Frodo placed a hand on her head and pulled her closer to him as if she would disappear and never return. Tears streamed down his face and he tried to control his breathing so he would not sob.

"Why are you crying Frodo?" Cody asked in a small voice that was muffled by his shirt. When he did not do anything to acknowledge that she had spoken she said, "Just because I can't hear doesn't mean I don't know what's going on. I can tell by your breathing that you are crying."

Frodo's body was racked in sobs when she said this and held her tighter as they walked. This was the first time he did not know how to act around her. He did not know if he should try to talk to her, even though she could not hear, or if he should do something else.

Before he could do anything Cody sped up and placed both of her hands on his chest telling him to stop. The two stared into each others eyes, waiting for one or the other to say something. Tears fell down Frodo's face while Cody's was strong with a hint of determination.

'How can she be so strong?' he thought, 'How can she keep going when so many things have happened to her?'

"I can tell that somethings on your mind." she said softly. Frodo gave her a confused look that made her smile. "When you can't hear your other senses become sharper. You pay more attention to the small details that most would miss."

Frodo opened his mouth to say something to her but then quickly closed it and tried to continue walking. Again, she placed her hands on his chest and forced him to stop.

"Don't act any different around me Frodo. I am still the same person, nothing has changed about me."

"If only you knew how much you have changed on this adventure." he said, he walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to pretend he was back in the Shire. "You have changed from the once shy girl sitting on the sidelines to the strongest hobbit I have ever met. No one would be able to walk the same path you tread now, my love." he was surprised at how easily he was able to say those things to her. 'If only she could hear me.'

"Hobbitses! We has made it to the end of the swamps!" Sméagol cheered.

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been two days since they had left the swamps and things were getting better for the hobbits. Cody was teaching herself how to read lips and could grasp the main idea of a sentence. She did not know it at the time but her hearing was improving slowly, not enough to make a big difference but it was still getting better.

Now, they had made it to a dense forest full of trees that the hobbits had never seen before. The bark was of a pale complexion and the leaves seemed to glow in the sunlight. Leaves struned the ground and muffled the sound of any creature walking upon them. Twigs littered the ground and when ever one was stepped on the crack seemed two times louder in the almost silent woods.

It was now close to noon and the animals were finally starting to come out. Birds sang their pretty songs and squirrels chattered to each other from the tree tops. The hobbits felt comfort in knowing that they weren't the only ones moving about in the forest. It was then that a loud, growling noise could be heard among the hobbits. Sam and Frodo laughed as Cody quickly clutched her stomach for she felt her stomach churn and knew that it had probably made a loud noise.

"Lets rest for a bit and eat a quick meal." Frodo suggested.

Everyone gratefully set their, lighter, packs down and Sam began to make a fire. None of the wood was completely dry and some of it was still green so it made a thick smoke that spiraled up into the tree tops.

"I do not think that it is a good idea to make a fire out of this wood." Cody said, a little scared, "We do not know what lives in these woods or if the Enemy is close at hand."

Frodo tapped her shoulder so she knew that he was speaking to her before he said, "It will be fine, we haven't seen or-" he trailed off for he knew he was about to say the wrong thing, "We haven't seen anything that could be of danger to us."

"That's what I'm afraid of." she whispered, with out meaning to, and then walked over to sort through what was left of their supplies.

"Oi! Look what I found!" Sam smiled and came out from behind a bush with his arms full of small potatoes.

"Samwise Gamgee, you sees to amaze me on how well you are able to find food like that!" Frodo cheered.

"Frodo," Cody called, "What's this?" she asked and turned around with a small leaf package. Inside was a white wafer that looked like dried bread but without the crust.

"It looks like Elven food, is there any more?"

"There are five more packages at the very bottom of my pack." she said while digging through it a little more, just to check."

"Put it away for now," he instructed when she turned back around, "You never know when we will need them most."

"Hobbitses! Hobbitses! Look what I has found!" Sméagol scampered into the camp with two limp rabbits in his hand.

"Why don't you give those to Sam." Frodo said pointing over to him.

"Yes nice hobbitses."

He crawled over to Sam and presented him with the two young rabbits. Sam was cutting and skinning the wild potatoes and just pointed where he wanted the rabbits.

"What's this hobbitses?" he asked inspecting one of the plants.

"That's a tater."

"A tater?" he said trying out the new word on his tongue.

"You know, po-ta-to." Sam told him, saying each syllable in turn while he finished cutting the last one, "You can fry 'em, boil 'em or put them into a nice rabbit stew." and with that he picked up the first rabbit, skinned it, cut it up and threw it into the water with the potatoes.

"No, you ruins it! Stupid, fat hobbitses." Sméagol grumbled.

"Ah, ah-" was all Sam could say to his little remark.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Sam this is really good." Cody said as she devoured the warm stew. All they had eaten were roots or other plants they had found along the way. This was their first meal in a long time that contained meat and had actual flavor.

"Thank you." Sam blushed at her compliment.

For the first time in ages, it seemed, they all went to bed warm and full. Everyone smiled as they curled up in their blankets and quickly fell to sleep.