Hannah covered her eyes as she burst in to tears; her husband Griffo put a hand on her shoulder as tears snuck down his checks as well. She had seen Primula and Drogo drown only two nights before, they had been her best friends. The older hobbit had taken them in after a fire forced the Boffins out of their own hole and Hannah felt se was able to talk to them about everything.
Hannah had been ‘removed’ from the family after marring Griffo Boffin, Griffo had been an orphan with nothing to offer her family. She thought to the good time Primula and she had, but they only made her think of that night … The talking and mumbles near her brought Hannah back. She took her child from Griffo, needing something to do, and began to rock her. The little lass, Lili, was six and a half months old. She had sparkling, dark, gray eyes and light, sand, brown hair.
Griffo watched the child and mother before him, he hoped desperately that Lili would have a better life than he had. The small family received hard stares and glares the entire funeral, both Hannah and Griffo knew why, they had been the only ones near by when Primula and Drogo drown. As soon the funeral ended Hannah and Griffo went back to the small hole they had shared with Drogo, Primula, and their son, Frodo.
As the next few weeks went on Hannah tried to get her life back in order, she worked hard to keep the house up. Griffo was gone much of the time, he took over Drogo’s job in a mill until a replacement was found who knew the job better. But life go harder for them, many of the hobbits in Buckland were cold and rude to them, they were always given the worst of any thing they ordered from the stores or bars.
This went on until Hannah couldn’t handle it any more, “Griffo!” She came home from the well that night and burst in to tears, ” I can’t stand it, everyone treats me as if I don’t excite or it was me who killed Drogo and Primula. It’s been a month and a half and they still blame us.”
Griffo nodded, “They forced me to quit the mill today.”
“Has someone come to fill in?”
“No,” He shook his head, “They have been getting complains against me working there, and their business was going down.”
Hannah sighed, “We have to leave, I’m not going to raise Lili in this.”
“Were will we go. It wouldn’t be any different in Hobbition.”
“No,” Hannah said thoughtfully, “But may be we could go to Bree or farther…like Bilbo did.” Hannah had grown up with the stories of Bilbo and his adventures, and of course Bilbo himself was still telling the stories.
“Let’s first go to Bree.” Griffo conceded and the two eminently started packing, they were setting off with in the hour. The things in the house were left to Buckland Hall to decide what to do with, but it took less than half a week for anyone to figure out that the Boffin family had disappeared.
Griffo, Hannah and Lili made it to Bree fine but found they didn’t fit there either. The small family decided that they were happier on the road, and would follow it were ever it lead. Little Lili seemed fine with the moving around, but even though se was almost a year old she hadn’t spoken a word. Hannah thought of this as she watched Griffo try getting Lili to take a step.
“Griffo, has Lili ever said anything to you at all?”
“Said?” Griffo looked up with a smile from watching Lili, “No, why?”
“Oh it’s just that she’s starting to walk and yet she hasn’t said a word.”
“Hannah, I know our Lili will speak some day soon, she certainly cries enough.” Hannah nodded then started laughing as Griffo tried stopping Lili form farther chewing a leaf.
After many months of travel they came upon the Mitheithel River, and camped near the bank. Griffo set to his never ending task, of teaching Lili to walk; while Hannah made a fire and started supper.
What they didn’t know was that an orc camp was directly across the bank, and that night they took the hobbits. The first thing the leader did when he saw them was laugh, than he barked some orders before turning back to them, “Keep them, we need some workers.” Griffo was soon put to work carrying the heaviest packs and a deer that had been killed the other night. Daisy received the firewood, sleeping rolls, and Lili. It was with this orc company that Lili learned to walk, and soon after was walking all over the camp; all the orcs ignored her even the leader, whom Hannah and Griffo had dubbed Ev.
One night while Griffo was skinning a deer and Hannah was retuning from gathering food, Lili walked slowly and shakily up to Ev and tugged on his shirt, when he looked down very angrily Lili stuck out her tongue, then started back to her father. The whole camp was soon in up roars, laughing hard at Ev and Lili; it was not long before the orcs were taken to Lili’s already stubborn baby ways. But the nicer they were to Lili the meaner they were to her parents, Griffo and Hannah received little to no food and worked all the time with less than an hour of sleep.
The company was soon at Trollshaws forest Ev then had them veer north to avoid Rivendell. They had just plundered a village when they made camp near the center of the forest and every orc was drunk from the plunder. Hannah and Griffo tried hiding but it made things worse, Griffo was beaten to death. Hannah was very short of dying; all she could do was lay next to her died husband and let a few tears fall down her cheek. Lili was left alone to do as she pleased, as she did most of the time, some times an orc would come along and make a face at her causing her to frown then walk away laughing.
But orcs rarely think of the reaction their actions will cause, so they didn’t think of a possibility that a group of elves from Rivendell were heading that way. There was, because of reports from the villages they had attacked, Lord Elrond took a group to deal with them. That night the elves attacked, and the orcs were so surprised they didn’t fight back and all of the orcs were killed or ran off, the elves searched the camp.
In the middle of the only two trees in the camp stood a little hobbit, between a dying mother and a died father. Elrond came up and knelt next to Lili, “Hello, we are here to help. What is your name?” Lili said nothing but pointed to Hannah.
“Please take care of her, she has no one now.” Hannah managed gasp while using her last bit of strength to gently push Lili to Elrond. Elrond looked at the child then to daisy who gave up her life, finally he picked up Lili and placed her on his own horse for the ride back to Rivendell.
One of the first people to greet him was Arewn, she noticed the child, “Ada, who is this?” She said taking her from her father’s horse, placing her on the ground.
“Her name is unknown, her parents were killed by orcs. She has not spoken.”
Arwen cooed at the girl, “Then I will call her Tauri, ‘forest’.” Arwen smiled at the hobbit then showed her hand, “Come Tauri.” The girl looked at Arwen and at Arwen’s hand then took it and followed her obediently.
The next weeks Arwen took care of Tauri, who responded well to her new name, but still didn’t speak. Elrond never got involved with the child, always sending messages to the Shire asking about her, no messages were given back.
“Good bye, Ada” Arwen said, one day after talking to her father before heading to the wood to play with Tauri. Picking up Tauri she started to head for Tauri’s favorite spot, but the child started to cry, and didn’t stop until Arwen set her down.
Tauri started walking as fast as she could back to Elrond when she reached him she tugged on his robe, “Ada, Ada.” Elrond looked at the officials around him, then back at Tauri still tugging and crying, “Ada, Ada.”
Elrond slowly bent and picked her up, “What is it, my child?”