The week after Iofan's thirty-second birthday, his father, Madoc Madcorf, great patriarch of his family and leader in the community of Maur Tulhau, fell ill. The whole village grew worried, as he was at that age (in his eighties) that sickness could spell doom, and most of all in fear and anxiety were his sons, Aled and Iofan, and his wife, Adsiltia. Immediately they summoned Lili Gardhur, Maur Tulhau's oldest and most revered healer, to assess the situation.
"Well, the situation's not good," she said bluntly.
"What can ye do for him, Lili?" asked Adsiltia, on the verge of tears.
"Not much, sadly," Lili said. "Ye see, the problem is that I don't have the right herbs for it. Not ten years ago we used to get shipments of medicinal herbs from the Dunlendings down south and east, but they stopped coming and I haven't been able to replenish my stock since. I ran out of all of them two years ago."
Aled and Iofan looked at each other, and Aled rolled his eyes. "Don't ye know who yer healing right now? This is Madoc Madcorf! Certainly yer not too young to remember his great adventure out east to find medicinal herbs growing in the coomb on the mountainside some fifty years ago! It's just like the old folks always say: history is repeating itself!"
Lili shook her head. "Oh no need to insult my age, Aled! I remember it clear as day. A miracle happened once, but I'm afraid Madoc doesn't have as much time as Old Turio did. Ye'd have to make the journey in half the time."
Aled smiled widely and patted his brother on the shoulder. "Luckily, Iofan's one of the fastest lads I know! He could run to the mountains and back in a quarter the time! Couldn't ye, lad?"
Iofan could only manage a brief "Uh" before Aled pushed him out the door, saying, "Ye know our dad's old stories as good as anyone, it shouldn't be too hard for ye to find the coomb. Good luck, and be back soon!"
And just like that, Iofan was out on his first adventure.
---
Iofan knew the way out of the Gloomglens, but he had never been far beyond its bounds. He struggled to remember the stories his father used to tell him and Aled about his heroic trip to the coomb, although he couldn't quite remember in which order the events took place.
Just on the border of the Gloomglens, as I'm sure ye boys know, is a huge white stone ruin. Us hobbits have never lived there, and we don't like going there, but there I went! I climbed up and, at that vantage point, saw the path south over the river I needed to take. There was a bridge! Imagine that.
Just like his father fifty years earlier, Iofan climbed Amon Mîn and looked out over the land, but to his dismay he could not see much. Rainclouds gathered in the east and south, and they were heading down from the mountains. He could barely make out the bridge his father mentioned, and he couldn't see the mountains at all.
Then I descended the mountain, and made my way south. There must've been some great kingdom long ago that built that bridge, and that road, and the old fort at the edge of the Gloomglens! But they're gone now, and only we and the Algraig are left. I briefly considered stopping into their town, which is right near the road over the river. Lhanuch it's called. But I was on an urgent errand, so I just turned left after crossing the bridge, and I made my way into the coomb, where the healers said the plants would be growing.
But Iofan did not descend the mountain. He couldn't tear himself away from looking out at the landscape, and the clouds that covered it. If he listened closely, he could hear the rain pouring down; the only other sound to be heard was the infamous wind which gave the Windfells its name, disliked so much by the hobbits that they retreated into the hills and canyons of the Gloomglens to avoid it. It was a cold wind coming down from the snowy mountaintops, and Iofan could understand the hatred. Looking out over the journey he would have to make, Iofan was filled with dread. He could not do it.
I don't know how many miles I walked that day and and then that night, but at last I found the plants! There was a large plain between the arms of the mountain that grew green with grasses and herbs, and it was there that I found the plants for which I was sent. In retrospect, it wasn't so hard after all!
It was too hard for Iofan. He couldn't face the rain, or the winds, or the spirits or wild animals that lay out there hiding just to attack him and eat him. The journey took his father three whole days, but he only had half that time, or less. He couldn't do it even if he tried. He was ready to turn back, and then a flash of light illuminated the mountain in the distance. Thunder struck, and the roar of it sent a shiver of fear down Iofan's spine. He ran back into the safety of the canyons of the Gloomglens, back towards Maur Tulhau.
That night I started making my way back. I ran out of food, so I pilfered some from a poor Algraig hunter who was making his campfire. Ye do what ye have to out there in the wild, boys! Remember that.
Night fell, and the rain caught up with him just as he arrived back in Maur Tulhau. He knocked on the round door of the old Madcorf household. Immediately Aled opened the door.
And ye know what I came back to, boys? The greatest welcome I had ever seen. I saved Old Turio, you know, and he lived for another ten years after. They prepared a Welcoming Feast for me, though I had only been gone for three days and two nights. We ate and ate, and celebrated. Ah, what can I say? I was a hero back then, in my youth!
"Back so soon?" Aled asked, visibly confused.
"I couldn't do it, Aled," muttered Iofan, holding back tears, realizing the consequences of what he'd done.
"You what?"
"I couldn't do it. I made it as far as the old fort, but the rain was coming, and-"
"Oh, ye let the rain stand in yer way, I see."
"No, well, there was wind-"
"Oh the wind! How could I forget about the wind? On the Windfells no less!"
"Aled, I-"
"Ye've failed, Iofan, that's what. And dad's not getting no better, and now he won't. Lili already left for the night. I'm sorry Iofan, but that's that. Ye want to come inside and say your goodbyes?"
But Iofan remained silent. After a few moments, Aled shut the door. Iofan just sat on the doorstep and cried. At some point he must've fallen asleep, even in the rain, as he awoke to Lili knocking at the door.
"Couldn't do it, eh?" she said, unsurprised.
"No," muttered Iofan.
"Don't worry, I couldn't've either." Incidentally, this coming from an old woman, Iofan was not comforted.
A moment later, Aled opened the door. "He's gone, Lili. He died last night."
And Iofan began crying again.
The next few days were hard. There was the funeral, where the Maer gave a touching euology, and then the burial, in the hills behind Maur Tulhau where the hobbits have been buried for generations. Aled made Iofan's failure and cowardice well-known, and while most of the hobbits, like Lili herself admitted, wouldn't have faired any better, they all looked down on him in hypocritical disdain. To avoid their shaking heads and judging stares, Iofan refused to leave the Fishing Hole, where he was only seen by Aled (who now barely spoke to him), his wife, and Kened, Aled's best friend, who moved in to help with the work that Madoc had been doing. Adsiltia moved back to her sister's house in Maur Tulhau proper, leaving the housekeeping work to Tegiran, Aled's wife.
As he fished and gardened in silence with his brother and his friend, Iofan could not keep his mind from how to redeem himself in the eyes of Aled and all hobbits. And, slowly, over many months, he realized what he would have to do: he would have to go on an adventure.
