Year: Unknown( but after the Ring had been destroyed)

Location: Middle Ice

"Look at all the crowd milling about here!" Chet said to his friends

Frado, Philppin and Torry. They were standing on the Rinks, and all around them was activity.

"Everybody is eager to watch the first Icelypmpics," Frado said with a smile. "I cannot wait to see it myself!"

The vast Rinks, once desolate and devoid of all beings, was now abuzz with activity and life. Dwarves, elves, Men, wizards, Oreos and Hobbits alike made up the crowd. They sat on the bleachers that edged the ice hockey field, and the chatter around them was lively.

Torry tugged at Frado's arm. "Come on, we had better be getting to the Icelympics Command Centre, or Elrond and Graydalf will be looking for us."

They headed to the makeshift hut which had been set up in the centre of the Rinks Theme Park.

The Rinks Theme park was a recreational centre that had been set up on the Rinks, near the cuppOreocino. It offered many recreational activities to all the beings of Middle Ice such as ice hockey, skating, archery, parasailing, glacier-diving and so on and so forth. It even had rides for the young dwellers of Middle Ice. There was the exciting mOreocha Falls Flume Ride, bungee-jumping off the mOreocha Falls, a Stinky-Winky Adventure Ride and so on.. Now the Rinks Theme Park had been chosen as the venue for the first Icelympics, the first major Games held in Middle Ice. It was the first competition between all the different beings of Middle Ice. The events would include figure skating, ice hockey, archery, canoeing in the cuppOreocino, skiing and something new called Ring Wrestling, as well as the quadrathlon and other events.

The idea of having a communal Games and having a Rinks Theme Park had come about after every being in Middle Ice had heard of the adventures of the Fellowship that had destroyed the evil Ruling Ring.

Just then Elrond, the Games master, stepped up to the stage that had been set up in the midst of the ice hockey field.

"Welcome, my friends, to the first ever Icelympics!" Elrond boomed.

There was loud cheering and applause from the receptive and excited crowd, with some cat-calls.

"Now I shall invite the Guest of Honour, Mr Frado Baggins, to start up the Flame of Olympics!" Frado stepped up to the centre of the stage and hung the chain with the beautiful crystal on the pole, to kick start the Icelympics. All lights in the stadium had been extinguished. Then the Flame of Olympics began to light up. BoroMel blew on his horn of Gondola, and the Icelympics were officially started. Once again there was loud cheering and clapping and stamps from the zealous crowd. Then there was a magnificent fireworks display, courtesy of Graydalf the White. Frado stepped quietly off the stage and walked off, feeling a sense of loss. He had had the Flame of Olympics ever since the mission, and having to part with it made him extremely depressed. When the opening ceremony was over, the games began to start.

The first event to begin was the ice hockey tournament. There were five players on each side, and they were to use wooden hockey sticks with an imitation of the now-gone Ruling Ring as the puck. Concurrently, the glacier-diving competition would be held, where each competitor was to jump off the bank of the cuppOreocino and perform diving moves into the plunge pool at the bottom of the mOreocha Falls.

The Ring Wrestling event was played in this way: the two competitors both wore a chain with an imitation of the Ruling Ring on their necks. They were to wrestle with each other and try to break the chain to get the Ring from the opponent. Whoever achieved that first won.

The archery competition would require the archer to skate along the Rinks and shoot at the moving target, which was a Oreo figure with an apple on its top that would roll down a line. The archer who shot the apple the most times would win. Frado, Chet, Philppin and Torry decided to watch the archery event to cheer on Joegolas, who was, of course, participating in this event.

"Contestant Number one," the announcer declared, "Joegolas Witheredleaf from Mirkwood!" The 4 Hobbit friends cheered loudly. Joegolas performed very well, managing to shoot all the Oreos with the apples that rolled past him. Frado gave him a thumbs-up sign. Joegolas stepped off the stage, waving and blowing kisses at the legion of avid fans that had come to support him. Joegolas winked at Frado. Next up was Legolas-salogeL, who had to come on the scene together. They were participating in the doubles archery event. They spun round and round as each twin took a turn to shoot off the arrows. They did well too, only a cut below Joegolas.

The four friends walked off around the grounds, weaving in and out of the groups of people milling around, talking. Frado saw Nickagorn standing by the cuppOreocino with ArWen at his side and smiled at how happy the couple looked. Graydalf was also with them. At the end of the mission, Nickagorn had been named the King of Gondola and Armour, and so ArWen had become Queen of Gondola and Armour too. Nickagorn had immediately made BoroMel his Chief Assistant and Minister.

"Nickagorn!" Chet yelled. The Man spun around and his face brightened when he saw who it was. When Frado neared him, Nickagorn knelt down and enveloped him in a warm embrace.

"My dear Frado!"

"My dearest Frado!" Graydalf said as he knelt down and hugged Frado from the back, squeezing hard.

"Owwwww," Frado moaned, "Let go of me, I can't breathe!" All of them exchanged hugs. Philppin, Torry and Chet began to chatter excitedly, telling ArWen and Graydalf of their news since they had last seen her.

Nickagorn and Frado stood in companionable silence beside the cuppOreocino.

"Who do you think will win the quadrathlon?" Frado finally spoke.

"BoroMel I hope," Nickagorn replied. "He has been training hard."

Soon the event began. The contestant was to start off from the ice hockey field. He had to hit the Ring as he skated and weave around some obstacles while being pelted with ice. Then he had to battle Oreos by shooting them all down with arrows, and when he got to the cuppOreocino, he would get into an ice flume boat and shoot off down the river. When he reached the mOreocha Falls and started plummeting down it, he had to jump out from the boat and start doing a glacial-diving performance. The contestant who could do this all in the shortest time would prevail. Of course, the accuracy of the shooting earlier and the quality of the diving maneuver would play a big role in deciding the winner. So in order to win this event, the contestant would have to be well-versed in diving, ice hockey, battle and boating.

Meanwhile, the news came in that Grimli had come in second in the beard-growing and flinging competition. The contestant had to grow a very long beard and do tricks and performances by flinging his beard about. Graydalf had of course won the event.

"He will be pleased!" Frado commented happily. "The prize is a fine gray pointy hat, just like the one he had."

Then the exciting quadrathlon began. It was THE event of the whole Icelympics and drew the most spectators.

"Are you not going in for any event, Nickagorn?" Philppin asked. He and Torry were going in for the figure skating competition. They had picked up a lot of tricks from Frado and were now competent figure skaters with a real chance of winning a place in the top three.

"No," Nickagorn answered. "If there was a mArathorn though, I would go in for that."

"It's slated to be added in as an event in the next Icelympics," Chet said. "I hear it will be a trekking on skates through the more vegetated part of the Rinks. The first to reach the finishing point will win." Global warming had been exacerbated, and now vegetation was actually starting to appear on parts of the Rinks.

The experienced BoroMel blazed through all the events, doing reasonably well even in his weakest section, the archery section, and prevailed over the second-place contestant by a slim margin. His ecstatic friends grabbed him and threw him up into the air.

"Wheeee! Whoopie!" they yelled, doing a victory jig, "three cheers for BoroMel! Hip, hip, HOORAY!" And they threw him up high into the air. They missed catching him when he came down and he nearly broke his hip when he crashed onto the ice.

The week-long Icelympics finally drew to a full-stop. It had been a victorious week for the Fellowship. Philppin had come in third in the figure skating competition while Torry had come in fourth which was fairly good for him.

On the day of the closing ceremony, the results of the beauty contests were released.

Then they all heard the announcer boom, ".......and here comes the results of the very first Mr Middle Ice contest!" Elrond and Joegolas were both in the running of the contest, as well as a lot of other Elves, who were the fairest of all beings, and some exceptionally good-looking Hobbits and wizards. There was a sister contest, Ms Middle Ice, for the females, and ArWen the she-elf had won the contest even though she was certainly not an 'Ms'. His friends had pleaded with Frado to join the contest, but he had declined.

"The winner," the announcer paused dramatically, and drum rolls sounded, courtesy of the fresh inhabitants of Moria, "isssss..........." The suspense that hung in the air was terrible. Everybody knew that the front-runners for this contest were Joegolas and Elrond. They both had big legions of avid, overzealous fans all around Middle Ice.

"is........Joegolas Witheredleaf of Mirkwood!" the announcer finished.

There was loud cheering from Joegolas's fans and boos from Elrond's fans.

Eltond snarled and growled in protest. The announcer stepped over and placed a garland of withered leaves around the victorious Joegolas's neck

Elrond went over to Joegolas and gave him a friendly and brotherly hug.

"Congratulations!" Inwardly he was fuming. Elrond walked off as calmly as he could, wondering if he should have dyed his hair blond as he watched the swarm of fans that converged on Joegolas. The female fans were swooning away and many people were pumping his hand and congratulating him.

"I guess cute blonds are more popular than cute brunettes after all," Elrond mused as he walked away towards the Command Centre. "I just don't see how that elf is better than me." Graydalf came by and patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.

There was a wonderful performance put up by representatives of all the beings of Middle Ice, consisting of dances, singing, and a musical, followed by another spectacular fireworks display courtesy of Graydalf yet again. Then a recovered Elrond stood on the stage and made his closing speech. There was loud applause from the delighted audience.

"Now, I shall invite our Guest of Honour to extinguish the Flame of Olympics," Elrond boomed(he never talked, just boomed). "Not Frado Baggins but his father Floordo Baggins!" The stadium became silent with shock and amazement. As everybody knew, Frado's father Floordo had long been dead and as far as everybody knew Frado was an orphan who had been adopted by his Uncle Billboard. Everybody gaped, Frado himself included.

"My fa-father?" Frado finally squeaked. He had never even had had a chance to meet his father yet, since he apparently had died when Frado was a baby.

Elrond turned to him and smiled. "Yes my dear boy. He came to us when the Icelympics began. We decided to wait till the closing ceremony to give you a surprise."

The Hobbit that stepped out behind Elrond was old and rather gray, but it was distinctively notable that he and Frado were related. He simply removed the Flame of Olympics and Elrond announced the end of the Icelympics. Then they went down to the Command Centre where they would get some privacy to talk.

Inside the Command Centre, Floordo Baggins walked slowly towards his son and ruffled his hair, putting his arms around him.

"My dear boy!" Floordo(who looked exactly like Elijah Wood in the Frodo getup, save for the wrinkles in his face and the graying hair) said,"I am so proud of you!"

"Bu-but," Frado sputtered, at a complete loss for words, "How? You're dead! Dead as a dodo!"

"Come, we have much to catch up on after all these years. I am sorry to have left you in your Uncle Billboard's care for so long......" Floordo took his son's arm and began to lead Frado along with him and their voices and figures diminished as they went off into the distance to talk alone.......