Ruby, your use of Tolkien voice in this story just blew me away. I read parts of it out loud, as I do with canon, and marveled at the structure of your sentences. Reading Tolkien out loud is like reading prose, and you have capture the same beauty of words here. In addition, you have managed to weave those words around a sweet and heart-warming story so filled with visual imagery that I am astonished. The picture of Pip and Merry together, how Merry felt about Pippin being so badly injured, his worry over Frodo and Sam - this story is a jewel held up to the light, many-faceted and sparkling. I copied the recipe into my "Shire Kitchen" file, and am copying the story into my "Read and Keep" file.