febobe

Well, I've been up early and out grocery shopping, and am listening to the new Tori Amos album on NPR, link courtesy of the delightful eldritchhobbit, and loving it, and I'm having a wonderful day so far, and wishing all of you one too! :)

Love,
Febobe :)




Title: Into the East
Author: Febobe (Frodo Baggins of Bag End)
Rating/Warnings: PG (graphic food descriptions, some occasionally graphic medical angst - NO CANON CHARACTER DEATH. I promise! It may seem at first that I'm headed that direction, but I absolutely guarantee, NO canon characters will be killed off in this fic!)
Summary: After the Quest, Frodo comes down with a serious illness, and journeys to Harad in search of better health.
Characters: Frodo, Sam, Elrond, Eowyn, Faramir, Merry, Pippin, an OC named Kalil (partly in tribute to Claudia's own Khalil), other supporting OCs, appearances by Aragorn and possibly Arwen. Others TBA, if any.
Disclaimer: I do not own and have not created any of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, neither characters nor world nor any of his concepts. I'm just playing in the sandbox, with no ill intent. Original characters, including (but not limited to) Kalil are my own creation, and I would appreciate it if they weren't used without asking. (Unlike Tolkien, I'm not dead!) This fic meets FrodoHealers standards and is free from profanity, sex, and slash.
Notes: Sam lovers, I think this is a fic you'll enjoy, as it strongly features his voice and viewpoint. Frodo lovers, this is definitely a fic you'll enjoy, especially if you're an old-school FrodoHealers fan. Faramir and Eowyn, Merry and Pippin will all have significant roles to play throughout this fic, though it takes a few chapters to get there. Also, please note that I have chosen Indian food for the predominant culinary culture of Harad. I realize that it may well be closer to Middle Eastern cookery, but I wanted to give it a distinctive tie and recognizable flavor, and I chose Indian. No ill will intended if you prefer a different interpretation; just know that this is my interpretation only and I realize it isn't the only potential take on Haradraic food out there. A word about Kalil and the Haradrim: I intend absolutely no disrespect to any culture or language. But the people of Harad would look and seem strange to Sam, Shire hobbit that he is, and more so than the fair-skinned elves and Big Folk he knew well. As for Kalil's language, I realize some people are fluent in multiple languages, but Kalil isn't as fluent as some people. I think he does pretty well myself!

CHAPTER TEN

Faramir had with him a man, a tall, caramel-coloured fellow, who looked like he might be sort o'thin, 'cept in all the strange silk clothes he was dressed in, it was sort o'hard to tell. There was some kind o'headdress on his head, and reckon he looked 'bout as strange as anybody I'd ever seen, 'cept them strange folk fighting in Ithilien, and I reckon that's as close as I'd come. O'course, being as how this was the place they were from, I guess it wasn't no surprise this man was dressed funny too.

Well, Faramir brought the funny-looking man over to Mr. Frodo's bed and asked Eowyn if lunch was finished and she said yes, and then he smiled at us. "This is Kalil," he said. "He is to be your physician, Frodo, if you will permit. I believe King Elessar has spoken of him to you."

Well, I didn't know about letting no foreigner doctor Mr. Frodo, never was real sure about the idea. But Mr. Frodo, now, he was real polite, held out his hand to shake Kalil's, and Kalil, he seemed to know what that was about, and shook Mr. Frodo's hand, and even bowed, real polite-like. And then he started talking to Mr. Frodo, so I just set back and listened. Weren't my place to talk over Mr. Frodo.

"Little master, I would beg permission to have a look at you. That will help me know what to do for you."

"I suppose that would be all right." Eowyn pushed up a chair for him, and he sat down in it, and felt o'Mr. Frodo's forehead. He sort o'frowned, then, which I could understand, and took a bag from his shoulder, and took out one o'them thermometers.

"Little master, if you would please let me put this under your tongue. Then you will hold it in your mouth for me for a few minutes."

I glared at him. "Lord Elrond sent one o'those things with us. I can tell you what his temperature's been the whole journey. Hundred and three in the mornings, hundred and four, sometimes a little more, come afternoons and evenings."

He looked worried, and gave a nod. "You take care of him, no?"

"'Course I do."

Kalil smiled then. "You and I will learn to be good friends. You will be my assistant, and tell me what I need to know. If there is anything you think I should hear, if your master does not tell me, you must."

Well. I reckon that set me feeling a little better about him. We waited, and when it was finally time, he took that thermometer back and read it, and nodded.

"This bears witness to what your friend tells me," he said to Mr. Frodo. "Very high fever. When I finish examining you, we must make you comfortable."

I reckon that sounded promising to Mr. Frodo too, not just me, 'cause he looked interested, and obeyed real good for Kalil while he asked him to stick out his tongue so he could look at it, and let him hold his wrist to check his heart-beat, and then let the fellow open his night-shirt and look at him and listen to his chest with a strange tube-shaped thing and press on his stomach. He had me and him set Mr. Frodo up in bed and listened with that tube-shaped thing to his back while he coughed, too, and rubbed his back real gentle when he kept on coughing. When the fellow was done, he sat back down and got Mr. Frodo all fastened back and covered up.

"Little master does have the consumption, very bad. But we will try and help you." He looked at Faramir. "Ask your men to bring cold water and cloths. We must try to help his fever."

Faramir stepped out o'the room and talked to somebody; I could hear his voice in the hall. Kalil waited till he come back, then went on talking.

"I have sandalwood powder. I will make a paste to put on your forehead. It is good for the fever. And if someone can show me to the kitchen when we are done, I will make medicine for you, raisins and ginger crushed in water."

"And this will help his fever?" asked Eowyn.

Kalil nodded. "Yes, very good for high fever. I will teach you to make it, or make it for you, if you wish. He will need it twice each day. Now, we tend to say very light diet for fever, fruit juices only, till the fever breaks. But little master has bad consumption, very bad. We cannot feed him only fruit juices; he will get weaker. We must feed him good, nourishing food. Meat broths and soups with cooked vegetables. Warm milk. Honey. Soft food, easy for him to eat. Do you understand?"

Well, now, I liked him already after all. He sounded to me like he was talking sense, and I nodded hard's I could.

"Feed him whatever he will eat, but let us give him some new foods to try, things that will help with the sickness. I will teach you warm milk drinks that will help him sleep, and sleep is very good for him. I will teach you good broths with spices. And we must give him orange-juice; orange-juice is very good. It helps the fever and builds up the strength. He will not get colds so easily if he drinks plenty of orange-juice."

"I do love orange-juice," Mr. Frodo said, with more enthusiasm than I'd seen in a while, which made me feel a sight better. That made Kalil smile, showing perfect white teeth, whiter than I'd ever seen on a man.

"Good! It will help you. Here you can have orange-juice whenever you want; here we have lots of oranges. And you may like other fruits too - there is sweet pineapple, and lemons to make refreshing drinks. Limes too."

Well, that seemed to interest Mr. Frodo, but right about then they brought the water and cloths, and Kalil got up and motioned me over to him and started showing me about wringing out the cloths, to make cold compresses.

"We must do this whenever his fever is high," he said. "Any time it is more than a hundred and two, you must put the cold cloths on his forehead, his hands, his belly, and his feet. Keep changing them; they will get warm. This will make his fever come down some." Then he took a little mortar-type of bowl out of his bag, like I'd seen Lord Elrond and Aragorn use, and some kind of powder from a jar too, and he sprinkled some water in on it while I was making compresses and laying them over Mr. Frodo, and he made some kind o'paste. It smelled like one o'them soaps, and it weren't unpleasant, and he lifted the compress and smeared it on Mr. Frodo's brow, then put the cloth back on.

"This will help you feel better," he said. "Maybe not at once, but soon. And it is important you eat and drink, even if you do not feel hungry. You must try. Eat a little if that is all you can eat, but eat whenever you can."

Well. I reckon this fellow had more sense than I'd thought. Sounded smart to me.

"Now, about that bad cough." He looked at Faramir again. "Get someone to bring me honey, and a spoon and cup. And have them get some water to boiling. I need a cup of boiled water too." He looked back at Mr. Frodo. "I give you ground mustard and powdered ginger mixed with honey. We will give you this three times a day until the cough goes away. And I will make you tea - ginger powder again, and a little cinnamon powder and clove. It will ease that cough."

This sounded more hopeful than anything we'd tried back in Minas Tirith, leastways to me. Mr. Frodo didn't seem put out about any of it, and I kept up changing those compresses, and bless my soul if he didn't seem to be a bit cooler to the touch, like the cold water cloths were just pulling the fever out o'him. Kalil bent down by the bed to talk to him.

"Little master, I will not lie to you. You are very sick, very sick indeed. But I will try and help you, and you have good friends who want to help you too. This weather much better for consumption than Gondor. Gondor too damp. Too cool. Harad much better for weak chests and sick people. You soon feel better here and want to eat up plenty. You sit in the sun and breathe in good dry air."

"I should like that," said Mr. Frodo, and he was smiling some, too. Only he got to coughing real bad just then, and it started bringing up some stuff that had blood streaks in it, so I held a hanky for him till it passed. Kalil looked worried.

"Mayhap I find you other medicine too," he said, "strange medicine we not try too often, but something special to help little master."

Well, I didn't know 'bout "strange," but I knew one thing.

Wherever we were now, something had to be done.

-to be continued-