Time went on after Madoc Madcorf's death. As the months went by, the hobbits of Maur Tulhau began to forget or forgive his son Iofan for his failure to retrieve the medicine. But Iofan himself did not forget, nor did he forgive himself for his cowardice. He refused to show his face in public, lest he be mocked, and so he was only ever seen by the residents of the Fishing Hole. The scandal around Iofan changed, and a rumor went around that he was antisocial and/or thought he was superior to all the other hobbits of Maur Tulhau. That was, of course, quite the opposite of the truth of the matter, but Iofan was not around to defend himself, and the rumors went on.
Nearly a year had passed since his father's death, and it was Iofan's thirty-third birthday. Of course that is a milestone birthday for any hobbit, being the day that they are officially considered an adult, and usually the hobbit and their family will hold a party and give out presents to the guests. That has been the tradition for time immemorable, but the residents of Maur Tulhau expected no such thing to come from Iofan and the Madcorfs this year.
To their surprise, something did happen, just not anywhere near what might be expected. Iofan, dragging by a rope what seemed to be a boat covered in a large blanket, paraded through the town, inviting the people he saw on his way to come listed to him make a speech. A crowd developed, intrigued and excited about what he might say. Most of them figured that he dragged behind him a boat full of gifts, and was going to apologize to everyone all at once for his antisocial behavior and finally rejoin society.
That didn't happen. Finally, Iofan stopped on the bridge in the center of town, and stood on the parapet, raising himself above his crowd, which consisted of almost all of the hobbits of Maur Tulhau (which, all together, wasn't that many). He cleared his throat and began his speech:
"My good hobbits, as ye may have forgotten, today is my birthday! I turn thirty-three today, and am now an adult. My past, my youth, is behind me now."
Here there was a murmur of agreement in the crowd. The speech seemed to be going the way they expected, so far.
"But there are still debts that need to be paid, and now as an adult, I see clearly the only way I can pay them. Through my cowardice one year ago my father died, and now it is my duty to pay the weregild."
Now there was only a stunned silence. Only those who took interest in the oldest stories knew what a weregild was in the first place: the price for killing a person, long made obsolete in Maur Tulhau as murders and duels became things of the distant, legendary past. The word hearkened back to a time long before the memory of the village itself, before the hobbits took the long road over the mountains. Certainly no one expected Iofan to pay such a price for killing someone indirectly (who, it should be noted, would almost certainly have died before he returned with the herbs anyway).
"And so, this very afternoon, I will set out on an adventure. Consider my departure my birthday gift to ye all. But I will return, in due time, and when I do, my debt will be paid tenfold. This is the boat in which I will leave. Goodbye."
He jumped down to the level of his crowd, and began to pull his boat away towards the exit. But the crowd erupted in a clamor of noise and chaos. They all wanted to talk to Iofan, ask him to clarify or confirm what he had just said, but he remained silent, and made his way through the crowd. On the outskirts of the crowd was his brother, Aled, looking furious.
"What are ye thinking? Are ye mad?" he asked, his arms crossed and his brow furrowed.
"Maybe," Iofan said simply, continuing on. Aled followed him, and the rest of the crowd followed closely behind, eager to hear their conversation.
"Where will ye even go? What will ye even do?"
"I'm not sure."
"Yer a fool, Iofan! Ye don't go on adventures without a clear goal in mind, don't ye know that? If ye don't know what yer doing and where yer going, ye'll die out there!"
Iofan just shrugged and kept walking.
"Ye have no debt to pay, Iofan. Ye can stay here, and everything can just go back to normal. I forgive ye, don't ye know that? I forgave ye a long time ago."
Iofan stopped for a moment and looked into his eyes, then he continued on. "Yer lying."
"Well ye don't need to banish yerself!"
"Yes, I do. When I return, my debt will be paid, and I will be redeemed. And all ye people of Maur Tulhau will welcome me back with open arms, and a Welcoming Feast the likes of which hasn't been seen since the days of my father."
At last they were at the entrance to Maur Tulhau, and the crowd stopped. Iofan kept walking, but Aled only went a few paces on. He crossed his arms and stood rooted to the ground.
"Fine!" he said. "Go and let yerself get killed out there. See if I care!"
"Yeah," muttered Iofan, "let's see if ye do."
---
It was a long walk to the river which lay on the border between the Gloomglens and the Mournshaws. Iofan knew the path well, his father had taken him into the forest a number of times in his youth. Most hobbits were afraid of the spirits which were said to haunt the land beneath the leaves, but Madoc Madcorf was a brave hobbit, and Iofan was brave when he was with him.
He took the blanket off of the boat, which had been keeping its contents safe inside. It was an old boat, used by the Madcorfs for generations for floating on the water at the Fishing Hole. Many hobbits were afraid of boating, but not the Madcorfs! Some Madcorfs even knew how to swim. Iofan was not one of these Madcorfs.
He set the boat in the water, moved his supplies - enough food for about three days, then he would have to start hunting - to the back of the boat, set his blanket down, and climbed in. He took a stick and pushed the boat from the shore, and used it to maneuver into a good position in the water. And then he dropped the stick and the boat was carried in the current. By design, Iofan brought no oars to help him steer. He wanted no way of turning back.
The water moved fast. The trees of the Mournshaws went by quickly, their white trunks and red autumn leaves nearly a blur. If he kept his mind off of the home he was leaving behind and the uncertain future ahead, Iofan was almost enjoying the ride. To his surprise, just as night was falling, he made it out to the other side of the forest. He was in Dunland.
He camped the night a safe distance from the trees. He didn't sleep very well, on account of his anxieties and worries about what was to come. He didn't even know whether he should keep on the water, or go the rest of the way - wherever he was heading - by land. As the sun rose, he decided to keep boating.
Not far down the river was a town not unlike Lhanuch, which Iofan had only ever seen from afar. The buildings were all clearly of Dunlending make, mud huts with straw roofs. Over the river stretched a thin wooden bridge, on which a little girl was playing. Iofan waved at her, but she just stared back. Surely it was a strange sight to behold, a hobbit reclined in a small boat floating leisurely down a river!
Iofan must have dozed off while floating by some farmland, because he was rudely awakened by the roar of a waterfall. The situation didn't set in until it was too late. Moments later, his boat went over the edge. By some miracle, the boat survived, and he remained in it, although his supplies and clothes were all wet.
He was equally unprepared for the next waterfall, a few miles downriver, which left his boat overturned and his supplies floating away, himself desperately clinging to the hull of the boat. Then, to his horror, there came three waterfalls in quick succession. The first he survived without much issue, still clinging to the boat. The second broke his boat, leaving him to cling only to a board which hardly supported his weight. The final waterfall left him boardless, desperately trying to swim, though he knew not how, and utterly failing. He only managed a few breaths of air before he sunk again, the current still carrying him downriver, and farther and farther away from his nice dry bed back home.
Just as he resigned himself to drowning then and there, and just as he was losing consciousness, he felt a hand on his back pull him up out of the water.
