"I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again."

carrying the world around his neck

"I see no hope of it now. But I've got to do the best I can."

a child-like rose | @abdicet

^{Today he isn’t quite sure where he’s going. But at times he feels, the space between himself, Sam and Bilbo is overmuch. As much as it is a dream he knows would never come true beyond the city, Frodo often spends time alone. His burden remains great, even without the physical embodiment of it, and greater still is his failure.} 

^{He must go back to the one place that can only end in death.} 

^{Dark thoughts, gloomy thoughts to have, and he chides himself on thinking them especially as he chooses to be alone. If only it were different, on the borders of the Shire, under the starlight! Talking to the elves and all their places, their bright laughter and song warming his heart as they spoke kindly to one another in friendship…}

^{He couldn’t remember a time he had liked being alone more.}

^{What catches his eye as he meanders the District is quiet odd, even for a hobbit of his experience and years. A flash of bright, blinding pink, tumbling everywhere. It’s the color of a spring rose, shining in a dreary city. A young woman by the looks of it, not minding where she is going, heading straight for him with quick, bouncing steps.} 

^{As he falls down, he still can see them in his vision, splashing pink into his eyes.} 

^{Well, he thinks. That was strange.}