"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."

many partings;

mastersnowdrift:

ninefingered:

^{Ragged breathing, the cowed posture. The signs of pain, a sagging position against a wall, eyes cloudy from something that could and should not be written or spoken. Words spilled, dream-like, weak in a way they had not been since he arrived. Each word took a hitched gasp from aching lungs.}

^{”..Tell me — please, what….” His eyes flutter. “What.. happens to those who leave this place? I must know. Where..where do they go?”}

Snowdrift heard the question as he passed and turned at once to regard who had asked him that. The individual who’d asked him was much shorter than most of the humans of this place, and when Snowdrift looked down to meet their eyes…

He froze on the spot, transfixed by what he saw in those eyes. Snowdrift had seen others with similar looks, and in particular, he remembered those young Shado-Pan who had just survived their first encounter with the Sha…or with other, similarly powerful spirits of darkness or powerful evil.

“I honestly do not know.” Snowdrift stated quietly. “I suppose there’s only speculation. Some people who are brought here don’t…adapt.” He shrugged his great shoulders. “I suppose we can speculate, given how less than eager the scientists are to reveal themselves to us.”

“And what of your spectulations?” It was the first thing that really grabbed at Frodo, not that there was a walking and talking bear, he had seen so many fantastical things alongside the monstrous, that he would address it later. Besides, even in the delirium of his pain and memory he knew manners. 

“Because if they expect me to sit here idly and not pursue my most loyal friend and companion – then they are mistaken. I cannot abandon him. He has not abandoned me I cannot . ” Frodo said almost vehemently, as best one could when they were in pain. His breathing was measured, the wound from Weathertop still prevailing as the most painful of his injuries.