What if Boromir Lived Longer? (Complete)

Chapter 11: Fishing 6-10-16

Chapter By: Pippin

Pippin's fishing rod had dried and he had tried fishing all last night and even early this morning. His rod didn't look as good as what he and Merry could make back in the Shire, but hopefully it would work just the same because he was getting hungry for something other than Lembas bread.

That morning, Legolas had gone to the other side of the river to search for Merry, Boromir, and Gimli. So it was just Pippin and Aragorn until Legolas and hopefully everybody else came back to the end of the river. Pippin guessed Legolas wanted to go search for the others and Aragorn wanted to keep looking for Frodo and Sam. Pippin was with Legolas' plan though so they could all be together again and so he could see Merry. Since there was nothing else to do, Aragorn helped Pippin fish.

"Have you ever done this before?" Pippin asked.

"Yes, many times back in Rivendell," Aragorn responded.

He was holding Pippin's handmade fishing rod and trying it out for himself. After about 10 boring minutes, the rod began to pull down and Aragorn stood.

Pippin jumped up suddenly too and almost screamed,

"You got something!"

Aragorn pulled up gently and eventually a small fish popped out of the water.

"Go ahead," Aragorn said smiling for the first time in a while.

Pippin went into the water, which was only the shallow area and grabbed the fish. It was very slippery and slimy. He struggled to control it until he handed it over to Aragorn. Although Pippin wanted to eat it very badly, he wanted to catch a fish himself so he could tell Merry. He told this to Aragorn and said he would help him and show him some good techniques.

They both sat down again. Aragorn placed Pippin's hands on the fishing rod in the correct position. Now they waited for what felt like forever.

Pippin: I have been bored lots of time in my life, but this probably was the worst!

Pippin was getting really impatient and said,

"I don't think I can..." then got cut off when he felt the rod being pulled down by great force.

"You got it! Now pull up slowly," Aragorn instructed standing behind Pippin encouraging him.

Pippin pulled up slowly and gasped as an enormous fish popped out of the water. Pippin gave the rod to Aragorn and went in the water again to retrieve the second fish. He grabbed it and just as he did so, the fish jumped out of his hands. Pippin lunged after it and caught it again. The fish was bigger than his head and it squirmed all over the place. It was very hard to control.

Then the fish jumped out again and its force made Pippin slip and fall into the cold water with a giant splash. He got to his feet fast and walked back to Aragorn with his arms wrapped around himself.

"Opps," Pippin said through chattering teeth.

"It's okay. At least you caught a fish. Let's go sit by the fire," Aragorn said with a brighter smile.

Pippin nodded and followed Aragorn back to their camp fire. Pippin sat down across from Aragorn and close to the fire trying to warm him up. Aragorn poked a pointy stick through the fish he had caught and put it over the fire. Pippin had always loved the way fire twisted and swirled into different shapes before his eyes. It was always a hard thing to look away from fire, once looking at it.

It didn't take long for the fish to cook over the fire and as soon as it was done, Aragorn pulled the spear stick out of the fish. He took his small dagger and cut from the fishes head to the tail. Then he took out the main large bones of the fish carefully and then cut the fish in half again the other direction. It looked cooked all the way and he gave half of the fish to Pippin and kept the other half for himself.

Pippin took it and said, "Thanks," and Aragorn nodded.

Pippin got the half of the fish with the head. He pulled out some of the smaller bones that where hidden on the inside and took off some of the fish skin and then took a huge bite. It tasted pretty good and the outside of the fish was extra crispy and though. The fish was perfectly cooked.

Pippin: And that concludes this chapter. I didn't really know how to end it, so sorry about that. That fish that Aragorn and I ate was amazing. Before you go to the Grey Havens, you should cook a fish over a camp fire and then chop it up like Aragorn did. Merry really wants to write his chapter now, so bye!