Great! Here is your reading, it's Part 3 (just for the file name, please don't include this info in your reading). Please answer to this to confirm you received it. Have fun! :o)
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'You know, then, what this thing is? ' said Faramir. `Come, now you have seen, tell me why it should be spared. In all our words together you have not once spoken of your gangrel companion, and I let him be for the time. He could wait till he was caught and brought before me. I sent my keenest huntsmen to seek him, but he slipped them, and they had no sight of him till now, save Anborn here, once at dusk yesterevening. But now he has done worse trespass than only to go coney-snaring in the uplands: he has dared to come to Henneth Annûn, and his life is forfeit. I marvel at the creature: so secret and so sly as he is, to come sporting in the pool before our very window. Does he think that men sleep without watch all night? Why does he so?' 'There are two answers, I think,' said Frodo. `For one thing, he knows little of Men, and sly though he is, your refuge is so hidden that perhaps he does not know that Men are concealed here. For another, I think he is allured here by a mastering desire, stronger than his caution.' `He is lured here, you say? ' said Faramir in a low voice. `Can he, does he then know of your burden? ' `Indeed yes. He bore it himself for many years.' '_He_ bore it? ' said Faramir, breathing sharply in his wonder. `This matter winds itself ever in new riddles. Then he is pursuing it? ' 'Maybe. It is precious to him. But I did not speak of that.' `What then does the creature seek? ' `Fish,' said Frodo. `Look! '
They peered down at the dark pool. A little black head appeared at the far end of the basin, just out of the deep shadow of the rocks. There was a brief silver glint, and a swirl of tiny ripples. It swam to the side, and then with marvellous agility a froglike figure climbed out of the water and up the bank. At once it sat down and began to gnaw at the small silver thing that glittered as it turned: the last rays of the moon were now falling behind the stony wall at the pool's end. Faramir laughed softly. `Fish! ' he said. `It is a less perilous hunger. Or maybe not: fish from the pool of Henneth Annûn may cost him all he has to give.' `Now I have him at the arrow-point,' said Anborn. `Shall I not shoot, Captain? For coming unbidden to this place death is our law.' `Wait, Anborn,' said Faramir. `This is a harder matter than it seems. What have you to say now, Frodo? Why should we spare? ' `The creature is wretched and hungry,' said Frodo, `and unaware of his danger. And Gandalf, your Mithrandir, he would have bidden you not to slay him for that reason, and for others. He forbade the Elves to do so. I do not know clearly why, and of what I guess I cannot speak openly out here. But this creature is in some way bound up with my errand. Until you found us and took us, he was my guide.'
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branchandroot
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Date: 2015-10-19 10:14 am (UTC)--------------------------------
'You know, then, what this thing is? ' said Faramir. `Come, now you have seen, tell me why it should be spared. In all our words together you have not once spoken of your gangrel companion, and I let him be for the time. He could wait till he was caught and brought before me. I sent my keenest huntsmen to seek him, but he slipped them, and they had no sight of him till now, save Anborn here, once at dusk yesterevening. But now he has done worse trespass than only to go coney-snaring in the uplands: he has dared to come to Henneth Annûn, and his life is forfeit. I marvel at the creature: so secret and so sly as he is, to come sporting in the pool before our very window. Does he think that men sleep without watch all night? Why does he so?'
'There are two answers, I think,' said Frodo. `For one thing, he knows little of Men, and sly though he is, your refuge is so hidden that perhaps he does not know that Men are concealed here. For another, I think he is allured here by a mastering desire, stronger than his caution.'
`He is lured here, you say? ' said Faramir in a low voice. `Can he, does he then know of your burden? '
`Indeed yes. He bore it himself for many years.'
'_He_ bore it? ' said Faramir, breathing sharply in his wonder. `This matter winds itself ever in new riddles. Then he is pursuing it? '
'Maybe. It is precious to him. But I did not speak of that.'
`What then does the creature seek? '
`Fish,' said Frodo. `Look! '
They peered down at the dark pool. A little black head appeared at the far end of the basin, just out of the deep shadow of the rocks. There was a brief silver glint, and a swirl of tiny ripples. It swam to the side, and then with marvellous agility a froglike figure climbed out of the water and up the bank. At once it sat down and began to gnaw at the small silver thing that glittered as it turned: the last rays of the moon were now falling behind the stony wall at the pool's end.
Faramir laughed softly. `Fish! ' he said. `It is a less perilous hunger. Or maybe not: fish from the pool of Henneth Annûn may cost him all he has to give.'
`Now I have him at the arrow-point,' said Anborn. `Shall I not shoot, Captain? For coming unbidden to this place death is our law.'
`Wait, Anborn,' said Faramir. `This is a harder matter than it seems. What have you to say now, Frodo? Why should we spare? '
`The creature is wretched and hungry,' said Frodo, `and unaware of his danger. And Gandalf, your Mithrandir, he would have bidden you not to slay him for that reason, and for others. He forbade the Elves to do so. I do not know clearly why, and of what I guess I cannot speak openly out here. But this creature is in some way bound up with my errand. Until you found us and took us, he was my guide.'