paradisa | (no subject)

[A knowing grin.]

I do have good aim.

[ He chuckles to himself some more, still popping apple slices into his mouth. ]

Is it better than mine, I wonder?

[She can manage headshots with a gun. Is it?]

Are you that good? We could always find out!

[ Hobbits are legendary, at least with throwing stones! ]

Even if I do say so myself! You must give me time if it is to be a proper challenge however, I am not quite myself yet.

I can wait until you feel better.

[She's sure she'll kick his butt :') ]

[ NUH UH.

Frodo just smiles to himself and finishes his second apple. ]

Why don't you tell me more about Georgia, Clementine?

Okay.

It's really big. We have a big city, Atlanta, but we have a lot of farms, too. I've been to a few... but I lived a lot closer to the city. I used to go there with my parents.

[Talking about home was difficult before, but it kinda sucks even more, now.]

I miss it. The way it used to be.

[ Frodo was going to move on to the next apple, but he stops and steps closer to her instead, reaching to hold her hand if she lets him. ]

What happened to it?

[She lets him.]

I don't know. Nobody does. One day, people just went crazy and started eating each other.

[ The frown just carves deeper into his face. That's terrible beyond even his imagining. ]

Was it a famine?

No, it wasn't that. Dead people come back now, and they become walkers. If they bite you, you get really sick and turn into one, too. But... even if you don't get bitten, and you die, you turn into one unless your brain is destroyed.

[These are facts. Sad, but facts, and Clem is used to them by now. She looks sad, but it's definitely an under-reaction for something like this.]

It's horrible.

[ Frodo grimaces at the thought, then tries to hide it for her. He wonders what orcs would do to them when captured, eat them too? But even then they would not be anyone he knows chasing him down for his flesh.

He sighs and moves to pull up a chair next to her. He climbs up and just watches her, keeping her hand in his. ]

You are very brave, Clementine. Though I wish you did not need to suffer such horrors to become so.

[A tiny smile. She doesn't know how brave she is, because Lee had been there for so much. She wouldn't have lasted very long in that treehouse. But she appreciates his kindness.]

It's why I didn't mind that you smelled. Walkers smell worse.

[ Frodo chuckles. ]

You've learned at a young age what I've only just realized, dear one.

What are you talking about?

That some things may appear foul when they're not. And pity may yet rule the lives of many.

[She's quiet, thinking about that. Pity was kind of scary, now. Pity was killing someone before they turned, or ending someone's life so that they didn't have to suffer being torn apart or being so miserable and sick before dying, and then turning.

Something like that, anyway. She looks at Frodo.]

Mmm. That's a grown up thing, then?

Perhaps. [ He takes his hand back and just bows his head. ] But adults may think mercy for an enemy is folly while children may be wiser.

[She puts her hands on her lap, thumbing the hem of her jacket. She wants to ask if killing makes her bad, then, but decides not to because she doesn't want to potentially lose a friend. Frodo is nice.

(Did Lee ever feel like this?)

Clem closes her eyes and does her best not to think about too many things at once.]

Do you have enemies, Frodo?

[ Frodo keeps his gaze on her hands, patiently waiting for her to speak up. ]

I have not made any -- at least, I would not wish to, but there are those who would harm my home and those whom I love. So I must stop them.

With Sam? And Legolas?

[Being alone is the worst.]

[ He gives her a simple smile. ]

Yes. They both wanted to help me. Sam, I think, would follow me until the very end.

[She smiles back.]

Can you tell me more about him?

Since you asked. [ He says that like a warning! ]

Sam is my gardener at Bag End, as his father was for my uncle Bilbo for all of forty years. Bilbo taught him to read and write and I helped too. But he is fonder of language of flowers than whatever you can write in books. He did grow the loveliest blooms in all the Shire, I can tell you that!

I like flowers. [An easier smile, now.] I want to meet him.